The Project Alex Chronocles: Lost Heroes
by Spencer Klondike 2.0
Summary: Jack Sorense chose life over death when his wife and child died but the consequences are severe, now the Universe has been doomed with only one possible solution, the problem. Contains, OCs Rated M for strong violence and language, some adult themes
1. Time kills every thing

_Disclaimer: Star Fox belongs to Nintendo_

_**Update:**__ I've remade the chapter, just for a better prologue and hopefully a better eye catcher._

* * *

It seemed like the whole world was on his side, Fox McCloud, ace pilot. Practically a super hero to many, but that was then. Now is a much different story. Now he patrols the streets as a rat, desperately trying to beg for money. At times he's even had to steal, but that one fateful day, he stole from just the right person.

Only hours after the Cornerian Sol set, Fox noticed an elderly man, just hobbling along. He had not eaten in at least four days and this was his big break. His worn out body quickly made its way to the old man, his paws greedily honed in on the pocket. Then, in a half a second, he was on his back. The old man had turned around and slammed him in the face with a powerful kick. Slowly the old man stepped over to Fox and looked down at him with anger, then with sudden shock.

"Fox McCloud, what have you done with yourself." The man spoke.

"Wha..." Fox stuttered, he had no idea who the man was.

"You don't recognize me, remember when you were sixteen?" The old man spoke.

"Lazarus?" Fox uttered in surprise, it had been many long years before he had seen the old man. Lazarus smiled.

"I guess Peppy was right about you, a hermit lost in a crowd. You're different Fox, always have been; I have new life for you, to restart and try again." Lazarus said reaching down to him. Fox reluctantly grasped the old man's hand.

"What do you mean?" Fox choked.

"You must give up your terrible past, and accept defeat, and then be born again, anew." Lazarus responded.

Fox thought for a moment, forget it all? There really was no other way; Fox McCloud was nothing to the world anymore.

"I accept you offer." Fox said closing his eyes.

"Then from this point on, you are no longer Fox McCloud, you never had a father, you never loved, you never had friends, understand." Lazarus commanded.

"Yes sir." was all Fox said.

* * *

"How could he treat me like that, all this time, all this love, for nothing?" Krystal shouted to the night, she had never felt so betrayed in her life. Her heart was a broken mess; she held the blaster in her arms tightly. Time heals all things a wise person once said, but what if time is the destroyer.

Here she stood in the dark rainy streets of Corneria, ready to blow her brains out. All because Fox chose to wait, and wait she did. Eventually time destroyed their relationship. Fox didn't know how to give her up, so he told her to leave the team. She raised the gun to her temple and put her finger to the trigger.

"Whoa, now hold on there." Said a figure in the dark. Krystal quickly pulled the the gun away from her head. "Now what's this about, you're too pretty to go and do something stupid like that."

"Who are you?" Krystal called over to the figure.

"Nobody and you?" The figure called out. _Great this guy knows poetry_ Krystal thought rolling her eyes.

"I guess I'm nobody either." Krystal said to the figure.

"Well come with me, we need to get out of the rain, I know a place come on." The figure said holding out his hand. They slowly walked along the slick streets.

"By the way, what's your name?" Krystal asked her possible new friend.

"Clark, and you?" He responded.

Krystal thought for a moment,

"Kursed."

* * *

Jack's fists trembled with anger, it was Bowman, he had attacked again, but he brought it too far this time. His specimens remained intact, but at what cost. He looked around, the bodies of scientists every where, including two of his best friends.

"Come on man, we need to go, the General set up for us to leave the planet." Daren Harvey called out, Jack's only surviving friend. Jack looked as if he were about to cry.

"Alright, let's go." Jack said walking over to the glass cylinders, the little embryo type creatures inside were getting bigger fast, only a month to go and they might have the perfect specimen.

"Why do we keep this up Jack, this is the third time this has happened." Daren said, trying to choke back tears himself.

"So we can get back at them all, to avenge those who died, everyone here, Arden, Sophie, Alex," Jack responded, he could no longer mask his anger. "When we release these upon the world, there will be nothing left of Carlisle, or Bowman. Not a single one of those bastards."

They both walked towards the soldiers who were supposed to lead them out of the building.


	2. Enter Alex

Disclaimer: Like I said before, Star Fox belongs to Nintendo

Updated: 12/6/09

* * *

Blood pooled around a body lying on the laboratory floor, a hail of gunshots spread across the room hitting anything exposed.

"Jack, what do we do!" shouted Daren.

"Try and fight back, come on." Said Jack as he lifted up a fire extinguisher and smashed it against a shooters head.

Disoriented, the shooter dropped his gun. Taking a chance, Jack grabbed the gun and opened fire on a group of shooters. One by one, the shooters fell to the ground. The remaining shooters quickly took their loot and ran from the lab, tails between their legs. '

'_Not very good fighters_,' thought Jack.

"Daren, what's the damage?" Jack ran over to the other Daren.

"They took all of them, except for that one on the ground." Daren chocked pointing to the body on the floor.

"Do you think we can save it?" Jack ran over and scooped up the body

"What! All of this trouble and you want to save one of the beasts that started it all?" Daren spat angrily.

"Daren, we've created a sentient being; I want to give it a chance to live." Jack said as he pulled open a drawer full of vials and syringes.

'_I just need to jump start the healing process_,' Jack thought to himself. He pulled out a few syringes and began injecting a few types of medicine into the creature's vein. Jack gently placed his hand over its heart, Jack grinned, _'the__ heart's started up again.' _

"Jack, they're coming back with more people!" Daren yelled madly rushing over from the window.

"Come on, through the fire escape" Jack picked up the medical box and hopped out the window, Daren followed close behind.

"Quick, into the alley." Jack whispered.

"Crap, I think they heard us." Daren hissed. Their fears were confirmed, some of the straggling men started walking towards them.

"Here, take him and administer this serum, it's our only chance at stopping what we created." Jack whispered and gently placed the creature into Daren's hands.

"What does the serum do?" Daren asked, bending over to pick up the green vial.

"It gives him the most important thing of all, free will." Jack replied. "Alright, here's the plan I'm going to distract them, you make your way up to the fire escape, there is a hospital in the West District, drop him off there and go!"

Jack moved Daren out of the way and jumped into the shooters, tackling them to the ground. Meanwhile Daren ran for his life, careful not to drop the serum. Daren stared at the thing in his arms, '_are you really worth it?' _He could kill the creature right here, right now. Daren pulled out a syringe and administered a vial. The deed had been done, Daren set the limp body on the ground and left it there.

* * *

"_Jack, don't play god, you know what that does, look at what happened to Andross!" an elderly scientist shouted. _

"_But this is my dream, to learn the secrets of life. I want to bring something something pure into this world, to counter all of this evil. It's what Sophie would've wanted" Jack said. _

"_You know I can't stop you," the scientist said with a sigh, " but there are people in this world who want to use this for evils greater than anybody can fathom, know this, in creating life, you could possibly condemn all others." The scientist warned _

"_Project Alex won't fail Ben, I know it won't..."_

* * *

Doctor, he's waking up!" a nurse shouted running over to a hospital bed.

"Now we're getting somewhere." The doctor smiled at the body on the bed.

"Whe..where, am.. I?" The young man spouted between sputtering coughs.

"You're at the West Katina Hospital, now just relax." The doctor's voice is calm and soothing

"Please…help…me, I..can't feel an..ny thing." The young man's coughs grew extremely violent, it looked like it was about to throw up its intestines. Slowly, the coughs sputtered out. The doctor took a deep relieved breath.

"That was weird." The young man said, no longer coughing "What just happened there?"

"I really don't know, I think your body was trying to clean out some of the phlegm or god knows what was in lungs, we found you half dead in an alley way you know." The doctor responded. "Do you have name?"

The young man thought hard for a moment, all he could remember was a dream about two scientists talking, only one name stood out in their conversation.

"Alex, I think my name is Alex, I think." Alex said tasting the name on his mouth

"You think?" the doctor asked.

"I can't remember anything before now, it's all just a jumbled blur." Alex responded

"Of course." The Doctor muttered something to the nurse, who nodded her head. "Okay, close your eyes and what do you see."

Confused Alex did just that, right before his eyes was a young man who looked about in his mid 20's, he wondered what it meant

"I see someone, I'm not sure who."

"Alright, maybe it's a relative you remember, let's get a DNA test and see what pulls up on the data base." The doctor said distracted, he pulled out a syringe and poked it in Alex's arm. After drawing some blood, he injected the syringe into what looked a cartridge and plugged it into a computer.

Within seconds, a huge list of people was pulled up; a double helix appeared on screen and singled out a few individuals. A young boy is pulled up; the word deceased is written across his picture. Next a woman pulls up; deceased is also printed across her picture. Finally the image of a young man pulls up, the young man he saw earlier.

"That's him right there." Alex pointed to the man on the screen.

"Okay, let's take a look, it says here that this is Jack Sorense." The Doctor read off some information after clicking the picture

"Where is he now?" Alex asked

"It says here that he disappeared a month ago, his whereabouts are unknown." The doctor replied "Wait, it says he was last seen heading here to Katina, maybe he's still here."

"Then I've to go and look around for him." Alex said sitting up.

"What! In the condition you're in, I think it's a miracle that you can sit up let alone get out of that bed." The doctor snapped.

"I feel fine though, I think I can do it." Alex slipped out of the bed, like none of the broken bones, cuts, or bruises had happened to him at all.

The doctor gasped, in only one night, the half dead mangled body they brought in was perfectly fine. The doctor sighed.

"Okay I'll help you out, I'll send someone to get some lost and found clothes for you, as for money, I'll take care of that." The doctor said as dug into his pockets. "I don't expect you to pay me back, just don't blow it on things you don't need.'

For the next ten minutes they waited for the nurse to go find some lost and found clothes for Alex. In the meantime, they tried to get a stimulus out of him. Nothing really seemed to work. When he tried to remember what happened the previous night all he could remember was the sound gunshots and muffled talking.

Finally the nurse arrived with a plastic bag with clothing in it. After changing into something more comfortable than the hospital gown, Alex received the directions from the doctor

"Alright, here's a map of the town." The doctor said handing him a small slip of paper. "Now, whatever you do, don't go to Downtown, that place is full of thugs looking to make a quick buck, and no offense, but you look vulnerable."

"Don't worry about me, I'll be careful." Alex smiled "And don't think this will go unpaid, there's gotta be something I can do."

"Just survive, or all of my kindness will go to waste." The doctor smiled back.

Alex began his walk to the elevator, not knowing what lay ahead.

_

* * *

_

A/n: I've sort of gone through and corrected some mistakes in this chapter, hopefully it looks a little cleaner.

_P.S. the part in italics one of Jacks memories, I'll explain later in the story _


	3. From bad to worse

Outside of the hospital was madness, it was the end of the work day and everyone just wanted to go home. '_At least I'm not one of those poor_ _suckers stuck in traffic_,' Alex thought to himself. Time dragged on as Alex wandered around, trying to get a grip on where he was going. He asked around for Jack Sorense, only to get frightened looks.

There was only one place to go, Downtown. He debated while following the map. It seemed like no time at all when he came to a large broken and rusted sign, he was there. Alex's stomach churned, something seemed ominously familiar about this place. Finally he started asking around, people here just ignored him. One man actually burst into hysterical laughter at the mention of Sorense.

"Oh I know him all right," The man replied. "He threatened to stop all street trash_ like me_." He emphasized. "Now he's probably been all shot up by some government cronies."

Alex said nothing, the man continued to laugh and walk away. Jack could be dead? Now he was back to square one. He growled to himself and walked along. Footsteps trailed his, although he hadn't realized it, someone was actually tailing him. When he stopped, the footsteps changed to running. A hand skillfully jumped in and out of his pockets, stealing the money the doctor lent.

The chase was on, but only after a few minutes of chasing, Alex was stalled by sudden headache. His bones felt like hot irons and his brain felt like exploding fireworks behind his eyes. Nauseous and dizzy, Alex sat on the curb. When his vision cleared, it was like looking into a new world.

Everything smelled strange, but it had a specific smell. He probed around the environment; people gave off strange auras around them. Their very environment lit up by their mood. He could smell himself, and that meant that he could probably find the thief. It could only get better as more and more suggestions dawned on him, he could find Jack!

He followed his nose along the trail of scent given off by his stolen money. After only ten minutes, he was led to the entrance of a trashed establishment. The sick smell of booze and vomit emanated from the windows. Alex threw caution to the wind and walked inside.

As he pressed open the doors, he walked into a large crowd of people. It was a sensory over load for Alex with his new found abilities. So many colors, so many smells, so many sounds; Alex had to sit down and close his eyes. When he opened everything again, he wasn't quite as panicked.

* * *

At the bar close to the entrance of the building, Kursed spotted the guy she stole from. He seemed dazed like before, but he quickly recovered and was probing the crowd. Looking only once and never again.

"How the hell did he find me?" Kursed said out loud to herself. The guy's ears perked up like an excited little puppy.

He turned towards her and started walking closer. The serious eyes locked on her, and she didn't have a gun or anything to stop him. She looked around for some back up. Finally she found her guy; she tapped the man on the shoulder. He turned around and looked down.

"Ah, what'ch you need Kursed?" The man asked.

"I've got a little trouble on my tail; look, he's coming straight over here."

* * *

Alex was listening to the girl who took his cash, _"…he's coming straight over here."_ She mumbled to a big man next to her. The man nodded his head and walked towards Alex. Alex stopped and looked up at the man, who grabbed Alex by the neck and tightened his grip. The room hushed.

"You really don't know what you're messing with, just leave the money and you don't get hurt." The man said. A slight growl escaped Alex mouth, the tendons in the man's arm bulged slightly.

"She's stole something from me and you're in my way." Alex replied in voice that wasn't his own. "Get out of the way and _you _don't get hurt."

The nauseous feeling and headache returned, but when the man threw a punch at Alex, he instantly grabbed it out of the air and twisted the arm. With a quick jerk, a loud pop echoed through out the quite room. Groans of pain flowed from the man's mouth; Alex jumped up and delivered a swift round house kick his face.

Blood and a few teeth spurted across the air as the man fell on his back, blood running down his nose. Alex looked down; primal instincts filled his conscious mind. Voices speaking as one in his head commanded him to kill.

He raised his foot to stomp, but a bottle crashed against his face. Someone else was ready to fight. Enraged, Alex jumped back up and kicked the new attacker in the sternum, a loud crack and blood dribbled down the attacker's chin. Alex took the broken bottle his new opponent dropped and stabbed it into the attacker's gut. The sound of flesh ripping and breaking glass rang in his ears.

The new opponent fell to the ground disemboweled. Alex turned to the first man and finished the job by snapping his neck. The blood lust was over, and Alex realized just what he had done. There were two men dead with their blood soaking Alex's clothing. People were freaked out, some had already screamed for help, but the room had cleared out significantly.

Alex ran outside terrified of what he just did, and at the same entranced in the question of just how he did it. These guy's were obviously two times his size and weight, yet he was able to beat one down and snap his neck with the flick of his wrist and rip apart another.

"Who the hell am I!?" Alex yelled in frustration and fear. He pounded the wall next to him, bricks shattered. He looked at his two hands. "What the hell am I?" He whispered.

* * *

Crowds of people ran in one mass movement as police sirens wailed down the street, straight to Vincent's Club. Kursed followed the sirens back to figure out what happened. When she made it to the club, the doors were wide open. Loud music still blared, but there wasn't a single soul in the club.

Kursed walked in and stepped in something slimy. She looked down and nearly threw up; she was standing in a pile of guts. The horrible sight of two mangled bodies lay on the floor before her. She stepped out of the pile and examined the bodies; one of them was the guy she used as her quick body guard.

A loud thump alerted her and she ran outside, just a few feet away was the guy she had robbed. By the looks of it he had just punched a wall and broke off a chunk. He looked at his hands and buried his face in them. He looked up and noticed her, fire filled his eyes.

"You! Stay away from me." Alex's voice was not his own, it was a vicious snarl.

"Hey there's no need for that," Kursed snapped back, she looked over at the bar. "Did you do this?"

"Yes, I can't believe it but I did." Alex said, his voice filled with pain.

"But how…" Kursed tried to think.

"Just leave; I don't even know what I am. I could kill you right now, maybe I should." Alex hissed at Kursed.

"Whoa, don't get too hasty, you've already got two bodies on your conscious." Kursed said cautiously.

"What makes you think another's going to make a difference?" Alex muttered walking towards Kursed.

"Because I can see that you don't want to." Kursed smiled, and it was true, in his thoughts he was just bluffing. Alex let out a deep growl.

"Okay, but what do you want with me, you've taken my money, you've exposed some sort of dark side to me, what now?" Alex said walking away. Kursed thought for a moment, maybe this guy could be the answer to her prayers.

"Did you do…that, with your bare hands?" She asked gesturing towards the club.

"For the most part yes." Alex replied cautiously.

"Alright, well I could use some help." Kursed asked.

"Yeah? Bug off." Alex shook his head and walked away.

"Can't you just hear me out? I'll give you your money back if that'll make you feel better." Kursed begged. Alex kept walking on, Kursed ran to catch up. "Hey stop, come back!"

She jumped at him but he whipped around at surprising speed and caught her by the wrist. Ice blue eyes met hers and she was instantly stricken with terror. Kursed struggled to loosen his grip and get away, but he held on tighter.

"Please, don't hurt me, I just want some help." Kursed yelped. Alex sighed, he just wanted to figure out who he was, not get involved with anyone.

"What do you need?" Alex loosened his grip.

"I'm a bounty hunter, right now I have a difficult job ahead, ever hear of the Hellions." The vixen answered

"Not too familiar with anything here, care to explain." Alex said in a sarcastic voice, keeping an eye out for any sudden movements.

"Okay, maybe we should do this in a more secluded area," they started off as the sunlight finally faded, "You got a name" She asked.

"Alex," he responded, "and you?" Alex asked

"Kursed." She replied

* * *

The duo stopped at a motel a bit farther down the street, not a really popular place by the look of it. Alex walked in and saw a wolf that gave him the exact same look the guy's in the bar did.

"Hey Vincent, we need a room for the night." Kursed said, more demanding than asking

"Alright," the wolf said grabbing a key and handing it to Kursed "Nice to see you again Kursed." Vincent gave Alex one last spiteful look as they walked to the room.

"What's his problem?" Alex whispered

"He probably thinks you're my boy friend, Vincent's been trying to get me since the first time we met." She said laughing as Alex's face turned red.

The room was a lot nicer than expected, it had a couch and 1 king sized bed with the usual T.V. set up.

"Good to know you have a bed." Kursed said gesturing towards the couch.

Alex rolled his eyes and went into the bathroom to change out of his bloodied clothing. He looked into the mirror and realized that he's looked at himself for the first time since he lost his memory. For the most part he looked like that Jack Sorense guy, black fur with ice blue eyes. All except Alex looked a lot more thick than Sorense in that picture he saw.

When he was finally done getting acquainted with himself, Alex walked back into the living area of the hotel. The T.V. was on and police were covering a brutal murder story, Alex's story. There were multiple interviews with crazed people, all of which claimed to be at the club.

"Great, so now I'm a fugitive." Alex sighed.

"It's the DNA testing you want to watch out for, they'll lock onto you through whatever physical evidence that you may have left behind. Most of these incredulous stories are just for publicity." Kursed switched off the T.V.

"Okay, now tell me about these Hellions." Alex sat down across from Kursed.

"They're a ruthless gang, they kidnap people and sell them for labor, and I have a close friend in one of their holding camps." She said with slight tension in her voice.

"I'm guessing that's where I come in." Alex guessed.

"Sort of , these guys aren't really the best of fighters, their strength lies with size, weapons, and numbers, I could take these guys any day, except for one thing" She explained

"and that would be?" Alex asked slightly confused.

"The Hellions have one of the toughest forts in history, impossible to break in, impossible to break out, not yet anyways" Kursed started to smile. "They won't expect you to be able to take them, just like the guys at the bar. You're my element of surprise. They take anybody that can work, they need to constantly replace over worked slaves. You're worth a lot of money to them, so here's the plan. I'm going to fake sell you to them and have you take out their guards from the inside out."

Alex just sighed, "So when do we leave." he asked

'We leave at about 4:00 A.M. Cornerian time, so just be prepared. You get some shut eye, you look exhausted." She didn't have to tell him twice, Alex slumped over onto the couch and was asleep before his head his head hit the lumpy pillow.

* * *

"_Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Jack Sorense!" The crowd went wild with applause _

"_Thank you everyone of the scientfic circle, I am proud to announce that Project Alex will start next week in honor of my wife Sophia, and my son, the name sake of this project, Alex." The room hushed, Jack's family had recently been murdered. "My group of scientists will be the first creatures to ever literally create life and modify anyway we please, my goal in doing this, is create an uncorrupted police force, so that we can stop crime and destroy those who wish to promote it." The crowd cheered even louder at that. "Now with the funds we will have a private laboratory, as of now I'm here to announce the people here that are going to work on the project." Jack looked around the audience. "My good friends, Daren Harvey, Sarah Gooding, Andy Trudent, and Arden White, will all be working on the project, all of you I called stand," Jack said, "Now please give them the applause they deserve." The crowd went wild, Jack looked around, he felt so dignified, so improtant. He never knew he would ever make it to this point in life._

"_All for you Sophia…."_

* * *

A/N: I'm starting what I call a "chapter redux" where I redo the chapter or make it better so watch for these as I update.


	4. Late night chase

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over Star Fox.

This chapter has been as well as the first three have been redone. I plan on doing a few more, but for those of you who read the first versions might want to read through these better written redos.

* * *

Hours had passed since Alex and Kursed checked into their room. Vincent was in his office getting a can of beer out of his fridge. A small ding resounded around the empty motel. He sighed and went to the front desk.

"How can I help you sir?"

"I'm looking for someone and I have reason to believe that he is here." A man with a black coat replied.

"I'm sorry but guests' names are confidential." Vincent snorted.

"Have you seen this man?" The man in the coat ignored the rule.

"Listen Mr. I said that the names are…" Vincent paused as the man in the coat pulled out a small box from his pocket.

"Go ahead open it, and whatever's inside is all yours if you tell me if this man is here." The man smiled. Vincent opened the box and found a brilliant cut ruby the size of a cow's heart.

"He's in room 202." Vincent said immediately intoxicated by the ruby.

"Thank you for the service sir." The man the coat smiled and walked away.

Vincent weighed the jewel in his hand. Whatever Mr. Trench Coat wanted with Kursed's boyfriend didn't matter to him right now. He greedily smiled to himself as he set it on his desk, but one noise wiped off the grin.

Rapid high pitch beeps sounded off, the ruby began shaking. Vincent took a closer look at the ruby. He had no time to react the explosion set off by the small bomb inside the jewel. Shards the size of pens impaled Vincent and sent him flying. He had been killed instantly by a shard through the eye to the brain.

Outside in the parking lot, the man in the trench coat threw a small detonator on the ground and crushed it with his feet. There would be no witnesses to his deed tonight. No one was to explain what happened to the police in the morning, just add whoever got in his way to his ever growing body count.

* * *

The couch was surprisingly more comfortable than Alex expected. It was very soft and plushy, yet Alex had trouble sleeping that whole night. Something bugged him, a feeling at the back of his head. He glanced over at the alarm clock, 2:00 A.M. shined at him in big red numbers. '_Just two more hours_,' he thought to himself.

Still that uncomfortable feeling remained, silence filled him with tension. Suddenly a small came from the table next to the couch. Alex looked over and there was a small child, just sitting there with wide, fearful eyes.

"Hello." Alex said quietly.

"He's coming, he needs you gone." The kid choked.

"What, who wants me?" Alex replied wondering if he was dreaming.

"The man in black, he's ready to kill you and anyone who gets in his way." The kid muttered in a harsh whisper.

"What should I do?" Alex was beginning to panic.

"He's coming, up the stairs and to the right, with claws sharper than knives." Said the kid, finally it disappeared from sight.

Alex tried to think about what to do next, but someone began fumbling with the door. Alex ran over to the table and picked it up to block the door.

"Kursed wake up! Come on we need to go now!" Alex shouted. She just tossed and turned.

"Not.. now.. Slippy." She mutters. Alex just ignored her trying to think of a plan. Finally after some mental debate, he picked Kursed up and to the window. To his dismay, the only way down was a two story fall. The guy at the door was angry; he smashed the door with a huge kick, sending it to the ground as splinters.

"It's now or never." Alex thought out loud, and jumped out of the window.

The feeling of free fall was odd, Alex braced himself for the inevitable crash into the ground, but sure enough, he landed on two feet, no harm done. However this didn't stop the man. Alex threw Kursed out his arms just in time to be plowed into the ground by the weight of his attacker. Alex instantly retaliated with an attack of his own; Alex shoved his claws into the man's ribs and threw him into the motel's front doors.

With a splintering crunch, the oppressor was smashed through and fell at the front desk. A glimpse of a bloody corpse laden with red knives lay at the ground. Kursed recognized it as Vincent. Ready to vomit, she was scooped up by Alex and was carried at high speeds into late night traffic.

The feeling was amazing, everything was moving in slow motion. Alex was able to quickly evade any cars in the way, but so could the man in black. Not knowing where to go, Alex just ran and ran. Alex was stopped by a dead end at an alley.

The man in black ran at them as fast as a bullet, Alex lifted up a silver can and threw it as hard as he could into his attacker. With a loud crash, the man was thrown back. Using the distraction to his advantage, Alex put down Kursed and pounced onto the man.

Alex felt his teeth with his tongue; they were rows of sharp knives. He opened up his muzzle and sunk his teeth into the man's jugular. Blood flew everywhere as choking sounds escaped the man's throat. With a swift wrench of his jaws, a large piece of flesh hung in Alex's mouth. He spat it out and left the man on the ground struggling to breath.

Alex swept up Kursed and ran to nearby parking garage, hoping to find rest there. Adrenaline or whatever chemical was flowing through his veins rapidly. Kursed was surprisingly calm compared to the whole situation.

"What the hell was that?" Kursed asked looking in the direction of the man.

"I don't know, but he's exactly like me, he can do whatever I can do." Alex whispered while wiping the blood off with his for arm. "It's probably only a matter of time before he's up and running again."

"We've got to get out of here; hopefully you're still up to running."

"Just tell me where to go." Alex replied

"Alright, we're at Mcloud memorial, the Portside Hangar where my arwing is parked should be east of here." Kursed explained. Alex heard screaming come from behind him. A shadow of fear ran down his face

"Damn it, the bastard's back up." Alex said through gritted teeth.

His blood drenched attacker ran, the wound absent from its neck. Alex grabbed Kursed and ran to an intersection nearby, Alex could hear Kursed shout. "Right!"

Quickly obeying, he drifted to the right and picked up to full speed again. "Just up ahead, there's a big sign, follow the arrows that say hangar." Alex did just that until they entered a large area dotted with space crafts of all types. "Alright, stop!" Kursed yelled.

He stopped with a skid and placed her down. Kursed dashed over to a dark blue arwing and quickly punched in a number combination. The glass hatch opened with a _whoosh_, she and Alex both hopped in.

Alex could see the man charging at them with blood lust in his eyes. Whatever this guy was, was ready to crunch their Arwing like a tin can. Kursed pressed numbers and switches as fast as she could go. Engines in the back could be heard warming up as the hatch closed. With a jolt they shot off into the night sky as Katina quicky began to the duo exited the atmosphere, he arwing began to slow down and all that could be seen was the vastness of space.

"Alex, just what are you?" Kursed said, her voice sounded strained.

"I don't know, first I wake up not knowing who I am. Then I do things that I can't explain" Alex's voice was still a tense snarl

"Hey calm down, sorry I asked. I'm just not used to seeing such…gruesome attacks." She replied.

"The weirdest part is I feel angry for no reason, something is building inside of me." Alex said.

"I don't know what to say other than that we're going to need something like that when we get to Hells Gates." Kursed said grimly. "You really don't look so good, did you get any sleep last night." She asks

"No, its like knew that man was coming. I could feel it." Alex said uneasily.

Kursed just shrugged and focused on her flying. Alex just stared into space the rest of the way there.

As they flew they approached a faint glint in space, Kursed pushed a few buttons on the console and the glimmer grew into a huge flash, leaving a large ship where it once stood.

"It's a cloaking device," Kursed explained, as if she read Alex's mind, "The flash you just saw is like a flash grenade, it dazes anybody within the vicinity." A few more minutes and the arwing docked in the he ship.

Kursed slipped out of the arwing as Alex followed. She led them through a maze of hallways until they reached what looked like a computer room.

"Computer, set a course for Hell's Gates." Said Kursed. "

"Acknowledged." a tinny female voice responds.

A thick metal sheet began covering the large window. "Buckle up; this is going to be a bumpy ride." Kursed said strapping into her seat. Alex quickly sat down as the ship started s to powerfully vibrate. Alex felt like he was sitting in a massage chair.

Then, in an instant, he was shot back into the seat. Alex tried to scream, but nothing would come out. He felt like he left his voice behind. Finally they stopped. Alex clutched the seat for dear life.

"Destination reached" the tinny voice says. The large metal sheet began to uncover the window, and outside was a blood red planet with large clouds surging around it like big black ropes. It looked like an evil Jupiter.

"I can see why they call this Hell's Gates." Alex thought out loud.

"Come here, I need to show you the attack plan." Kursed pointed to a seat. She presseed a few buttons and a hologram of a cave with a huge metal door pulls up. "This is the Hellion Fortress, and like I said before, there's only one way in and you're looking at it." Alex just kept his eyes on the hologram.

Kursed pressed a button on the keyboard and the hologram moved past the door into a large antechamber. "Within the base is guard center at the entrance, this is where the exchange between money and slave happens," Kursed continued. "After that, they take you to an examining room to see where you're going to work, that's going to be your chance to strike." She explains.

"You need to kill them as fast as possible, if you're not careful, then the whole fortress will be on you." Kursed said. Alex felt sick in the back of his throat. Innocence was quickly leaving him. "I need you to then open the door and let me in, next we need to sneak in and locate their prisoner records, that's where will find my partner, we get him, and then we get out, understood?" she concludes.

"Understood" is all Alex coughs out.

* * *

A/N:And that is the 4th redone chapter. Let's have a round of applause please =)


	5. Hell's Gates Massacre

Discalimer: I don't own Star Fox. Period.

Alex and Kursed split into two arwings, she flew one while he was tethered to the other one with a long electric orange beam. As they approached the atmosphere, the temperature shot up, it was like sitting in an oven.

"Kursed, it's getting a little hot in here." Alex said sweat began to form on his forehead.

"Don't panic, the arwing will stabilize the temperature." Kursed replied over the radio.

Alex looked out of the window, there was only miles of red haze.

"Alright, get ready to help me land, take the stick in front of you and push it forward." Alex took the stick and shoved it forward. Alex felt his stomach lurch forward as the arwing's nose suddenly pointed down.

"Hey watch it, that was way too much, the last thing we need is you to bring us crashing into the desert." Kursed shouted, Alex shook off the feeling of the lurch and pulled gently on the stick to bring the nose up to a slight tilt. "Okay, now press a bright yellow button on the console above you." She orders.

He reached up and did just that, "powering down gravity diffusers" showed up in big yellow letters on the status screen

"Good, let the stick resettle into neutral and press the blue button on the box near the hatch." The ship slowly shifted back to neutral position; the the bottom of the arwing settled on the fine black sand of the desert. Alex's hatch suddenly whooshed open and a blast of hot air blasted his face.. Kursed ran over and quickly pulled him out.

"Come here, I need to put these handcuffs on you." She said binding Alex while putting a brace around his neck.

"Are you putting a leash on me?" He asked exasperated.

"This has to look convincing, I can't let this go wrong." Kursed replied leading them away from the arwings. Alex couldn't help but feel degraded.

Kursed led him to an opening in the rocks, the air felt much cooler inside. Kursed whiped out her blaster and pressed it to Alex's back. Alex a deep breath and lets her push him to the door.

"State your business!" bellowed a baritone voice.

"I've got a little trade I'd like to make." Kursed responded. The door slowly opened, two rhinos came out to escort their "prisioner" into the guards hall.

Within the guards hall, Alex took a look at his surroundings. Everything looked so much more menacing than the hologram. Large statues of chained men acted as pillars that held up the ceiling. Inscriptions of words were carved into the large statues chests'. Around the room were guards marching in formation wielding huge medieval weapons, all of them were modified with some strange battery attached.

Kursed handed the chain to Alex's neck over to a guard. The guard yanked Alex over in his direction. Kursed walked over to negotiate with another guard.

"A fine lookin' specimen here, hey don't I know you from somewhere?" The guard asked while handing her a stack of money.

"I get that all the time." Kursed replied sheepishly.

"Right...well pleasure doing business with you." The man grumbled to himself. "Get the fresh meat into the breaking chamber!" He shouted gesturing to another guard to drag the new prisoner over to a large door.

Kursed looked back once at Alex who nodded his head, as soon as she was out of sight, she ran.

Alex struggled to break loose from his bondage, but the guard just smashed Alex over the head with his fist.

"No rebels here, keep this up and you're going to learn your place the hard way." The guard growls

The room he was led in was a large dingy room with tools of all kinds on the wall. A blood stained stone table lay in the center of the room where a masked guard stood. Alex just went along with what was going on as the guard walked over to the table.

A guard pulled out a large metal stake and hammer. Alex tensed him self as the guard walked over to him. With a loud _clank_, Alex's leash was pounded into the wall. The large guards grabbed him, Alex struggled and kicked with his feet. A guard took a hammer and slammed him in the gut.

Alex could taste a hint of blood in his saliva as the guard bound his legs together. Another guard pulled out a syringe filled with blue liquid. He slowly approached Alex.

Not wanting to find out what happens next, Alex quickly filled his mind with thoughts of hate. He tried as hard as he could to replicate the feeling on Katina. His body quickly reacted with the emotions and strange mutant hormones surged through his veins.

A new found strength filled his muscles, sharp claws poked out of his fingers. Alex cut his hand cuffs and then ripped off the rope holding his legs together. Guards ran towards him with weapons ready to kill Alex. With a powerful tug, the stake flies off the wall. Alex grabs the stake and stabs it into the nearest guards head, killing him instantly.

Alex tore off his collar and grabbed the sword the guard was holding. With a swift swipe, a guard's head flew off. Another guard fell in two halves as Alex charged another. Suddenly, a bolt of electricity ran up Alex's spine.

A guard behind him pulled out a dagger and stabbed Alex in the back with it. Alex dropped the sword while another guard smashed Alex with a mace. He flew out into the guard hall where hundreds of guards had their sights on him.

The guard with the mace charged Alex again, only to be stopped by sharp claws digging into his ribs. The guard yelped as Alex pulled his claws to the side, opening up the rib cage. Blood and guts spilled onto the floor as other guards looked at Alex, some stumbled with fear, others were enraged.

A guard with a strange electrified gun aimed at Alex and shot a harpoon in his direction. Alex grabbed the harpoon out of the air, electricity surged through Alex. A guard took a sword and stabbed Alex in the stomach.

Alex took the electric harpoon and stabbed the guard in the chest. The guard with the harpoon gun threw the gun to the side and ran. Alex pulled the broad sword from his chest and hurled it at the running guard. The blade sliced through the running guard's neck, the body fell limp as the head rolled away.

The mace wielding guard walked towards Alex. Alex turned to his opponent, his claws ready to kill. The guard pressed a button on the battery of his mace. Orange energy surrounded the tip of the mace as the guard swung at Alex.

Alex jumped over the horizontal swing and grabbed the handle of the mace. The guard viciously kicked Alex in the stomach, Alex didn't react, he felt nothing. He wrenched the powered up mace out of bewildered guard's hands. With a crushing blow, two thousand tons of force was discharged through the energy mace.

The guard and a few others surrounding him were obliterated by the blast. Alex tried to charge the mace again, but the battery had died. Another guard tried to hit Alex with a large broad sword. Alex easily dodged around the weapon. With a smack to the head from the mace, the guard's head was crushed like a pumpkin.

Alex picked up the sword of the dead guard and ran into the direction of the crowd. He turned on the charge to power up the sword. They all fell over as he hacked through them. He not really sure who was dead or alive, but he kept attacking.

After only ten minutes, the charged sword cleared the room of living guards. Alex ran to the gate's control panel and pressed a few buttons to open it. Kursed ran in to see the sudden sight of bloody bodies on the ground.

"Come on, we need to get to that record room." She turned away from the bodies and ran to another door. Kursed pulled out her gun, ready for anything.

Now it was time to be stealthy, slipping around the corner, they noticed a few guards at a door. Like a snake, Alex slid towards them quickly, careful not to make a sound. Using his knife like claws, he grabbed them both and slashed their necks open.

_What is this guy_, Kursed thought to herself catching up to Alex. Her search continues as Alex charges past. Nothing, not even Alex could stop the monster that was unleashed.

Eventually they came to another door, "Slave records" was printed above the door.

"Alright Alex, you stay here and guard the door. I don't want any nasty surprises." Kursed whispered. Alex turned around and walked out of the door. Kursed sighed and began searching for the name Robin.

The computer database sifted through all of the names remotely close to Robin. Finally bright green text started typing out information.

_Clark Robin..._

_Location: Block C..._

_Status: Useless...._

_Warden Comments..._

"_To be executed today at 10:00, take precautions, extremely dangerous. Chemical breaking doesn't work."_

Kursed skipped a breath, they were going to kill him in about an hour if they didn't hurry. She ran out the door and saw Alex patiently waiting, the hairs on the back of his neck stiffened. He turned and saw Kursed panic stricken eyes.

"What's wrong?" Alex's rage left him in that instant.

"They're going to kill him, we've only got an hour before that happens. They've got him locked up in C block, lets go!" Kursed said so fast she nearly stuttered, Alex quickly ran off searching for C-block.

He followed all sorts of signs to try and get there, but time wasn't on his side. He had spent a good thirty minutes looking for C block. Finally he stopped and tried to focus on his senses. He could hear moans, yelling. He could smell vomit and blood, fear. Finally he heard a loud shout.

"Clark, answer me!"

It was Kursed, she must have found the C block. Alex turned and ran to the shouting. Finally he came to a room. It was filled with emaciated corpse like bodies walking aimlessly in all directions. Kursed voice came from a large group in the middle of the room.

"Clark, are you in there." Kursed shouted.

"Kursed is that you?" Another unfamiliar voice answered.

"Yes! Where are you?" Kursed said. A smile forming on her face.

"It sounds like you're in front of me, just keep coming forward." Clark responded.

Kursed ran through the walking corpses, none protested. Finally she came to a cell sealed in by heavy metal bars. Several feral creatures hunched over in the cage, they appeared to be sleeping. Clark looked up and saw Kursed, he looked around and then finally limped towards her.

"Thank god you made it here, if those guards didn't kill me, then it would be my cell mates here would've" Clark sighed with relief. "Alright now get me out of here."

Kursed suddenly realized that she had over looked just how she was going to get him out. Her mind raced as she tried to find a solution.

"You have no idea how to get me out of here." Clark said, his voice had a tinge of spite.

"Just hold on I'm thinking." Kursed snapped. One of the Clark's cell mates began to stir.

"Hurry up then, these guys'll skin me alive when they wake up." Clark's voice stooped to a low whisper. Kursed finally thought of something, she had totally forgotten about Alex. He could probably rip the gate off of this thing.

"Brace yourself, I'm going to call for someone." Kursed replied, Clark stopped breathing. He was scared out of his mind now.

"Alex! Come here, I need help!" Kursed shouted.

Her voice was carried across the sea of bodies. At the other end was Alex. His ears perked up, he could hear Kursed's voice. He ran through the prisoners following the direction of her voice. Finally he found her standing in front of a prison cell. An avian stood right in front of the gate.

"Alex, I've found him, can you get this gate off?" Kursed asked.

"Yeah probably, stand back both of you." Alex replied.

"This guy's going to rip open the gate? You're kidding right?" Clark asked.

"Just stand back Clark and trust me." Kursed snapped.

"Here it goes." Alex clenched his teeth as he grabbed the gate.

He pulled as hard as he could, sparks flew from the hings at the gate. Metal and machinery sparked to life as he finally wrenched the gate out of place. He threw it to the side as a bewildered Clark stepped out.

"How the hell did you..." Clark was cut off by one of the cell mates. They were finally awake. The one on top of him was trying to take a bite out of his neck.

Alex grabbed the creature's head and turned it around. With a sickening crack, the creature's neck was broken. Kursed shot another one in the head, its brains scattered across the cell. Two others charged at them, but Alex cut them off with a stab to the throat with his claws.

Blood trickled down their necks as the fell down limp. Alex turned towards Clark he looked at Alex with resentment.

"So tell me Kursed, where'd you pick up this guy."

"We can talk later, I can hear a large force of guards coming." Alex interrupted

"He's right, Clark. We've got to go." Kursed replied. Clark

The group began running for their life as they met up with the attack force. Alex readied his claws for the strike, a group of about 5 guards at the end of the hallway turned the corner. Alex shouted a battle cry as the group closed in on him. They yelled back with their weapons raised. Alex braced himself as they closed in on him.

Suddenly, a green laser bolt soared through the air and connected with a guards chest. Blood spattered all over the place as the guard fell backwards. Alex used the distraction to his advantage. He jumped into two others. He pinned one to the ground with his claws sticking its arms to the ground. With a vicious bite, Alex ripped out the guard's jugular. The other one ran away, Alex followed close behind.

The guard yelled for help as Alex took the guard's head and smashed against a wall. The other two guards were running as fast as they could. Alex chased after them. One tripped on the ground, there was no mercy spared as he was ripped to shreds.

The final guard was brought down by another laser bolt. Clark walked passed Alex, the immediate feeling of disgust filled the air. Kursed took the lead and led them out of the halls, the whole way they were silent.

Finally the door was just in sight. Alex dashed over to the console and began to open the door. As soon as they could fit under the metal door, they slid under and ran to the desert.

"The arwings are over there, Alex lead Clark to his." Kursed shouted.

In the distance they could a see a colossal black wall of sand that reached all the way up to red clouds. Soon the air would be nothing but black sand. Alex quicky led Robin to his arwing, they jumped in and Clark started the machine up as fast as he could.

As soon the arwings left the ground, a black sand storm crashed into them.. Clark tried to center himself in the sandstorm, nothing could be seen at all

"Pull up!" Alex shouted, with a quick lurch the sand disappeared. They were both relieved as they burst out of the atmosphere, once again staring into space.

"You guys okay?" Kursed asked over the radio.

"Just peachy, I'm a little cramped though." Clark replied.

"Good to know, I'm glad to see your alive and well." Kursed answered

"What do they do down there, it looked like everyone was already dead." Alex says joining the conversation.

"Those are people that worked to the point of insanity, they were just empty shells." Clark responded

"What were you doing with them?" Kursed asked.

"Let's just say I got into some trouble, and they locked me down there and as punishment, they were going to incinerate me with the rest of those hollow shells." He answered with spite. "Alright, now that that's out of the way, who are you." Clark asked Alex.

"He's a friend I picked up in Katina." Kursed answered for him.

"Really, why did you get him, couldn't you have got that Star Falco team? They still owe you a favor don't they?" Clark replied bitterly.

"Hey, I helped you out of that pit, a little thank you would have been nice." Alex snapped back

"Like I needed a wild animal to break me out." Clark spits back

"How else were we going to get you out, I had to do something about those guys. One way or another I had to get us all out of there alive." Alex was really starting to get mad, he still hadn't calmed down from the fight with the Hellions

"Shut up both of you!" Kursed shouted over the radio.

Awkward silence was the only thing that filled the rest of the trip back.

* * *

**UPDATE:**

**A/N: finally another redone chapter.**


	6. Meeting

* * *

Fox McCloud stepped out of the small cot and into a small plain metal room, he just sighs and walks through the small opening in the wall.

"Well look who's awake." a grey feline from the far end of the new room shouts.

"Hey Theta, what you doing up, it's midnight." Fox responds groggily.

"We're in space, there is no time." Said Theta

"See, I'm so tired that I can't think." Fox says with a chuckle

"This might wake you up, Lazarus called, he said we have a mission from the Cornerian government." Theta said back.

Fox quickly left the room and got into black Lazarus uniform and went back to the control room, _what is Lazarus doing with Corneria._ Fox asked himself. He ran to take pilot seat, but Theta was already in the seat charting their course.

"Looks like you get shotgun." She laughs as Fox sits down next to her.

"_Pilot Identification." _Asked the computer's voice

"Theta Lazarus." Theta answered

"Iota Lazarus." Fox answered to the computer, Iota was Fox's new name after he joined team Lazarus, he made an oath to get rid of the old him along with his name.

"_Identification complete, choose destination." _The computer finishes.

"Planet Corneria, Lylat system." Theta responds.

A faint hum fills the room while everything showing in the window changes into a blur, then it all disappears as the ship now violently begins shaking. Soon, everything slowed to a stop and a green and blue planet appeared in the window.

"_Destination reached, planet Corneria." _Said the computer

* * *

Alex vigorously scrubbed himself in the shower, after surviving Hell's Gates, pitch black sand was his next worry. He had been in there for literally hours trying to get blood and sand out of his fur. After Alex felt that he got most of the sand out, he shut off the water and got out to get dressed. When he got back into clothing, he could still feel the black sand wedged uncomfortably around his body.

"Dang, I haven't been covered in this much sand since I was almost buried alive by the mafia a few years ago." Clark said to Kursed while shaking sand off of his feathers.

"Don't get too comfortable just yet, I got a call from an old friend, he said it was urgent." Kursed said as Alex walks into the room.

"So where are we going?" Alex asked

"Corneria city." She replied.

At this statement, Clark almost spat out the drink he was holding. The mafia's favorite hangout was on Corneria.

* * *

"I'm punching in the coordinates in right now, and please try not to look like bounty hunters, people there don't take kindly to our kind." Said Kursed as she buckled her seat belt.

General Peppy Hare sat in his office copying information to a CD, soon a few soldiers walked in.

"Sir, Lazarus is here." Said the one at the front of the group

"Alright, send him to the briefing hall, I'll be there in a few minutes." Peppy answered

"Yes Sir." The group said in unison, and then left the room

Peppy waited a short while longer, then the CD popped out of the computer. Peppy picked it up and began walking out of the door. He entered a large room that looked like a movie theater, with seats facing a large blank screen, this was the briefing room. Sitting in the front row was Star Falco, Falco's new team. It composed of Falco Lombardi, Katt Monroe, and Lucy Hare. They were trying to talk with Lazarus's alpha team who was sitting behind them. As much as they tried, only Lazarus himself would answer their questions. The Alpha team composed of the orange fox Iota, the grey feline Theta, the orange lizard Epsilon, and Lazarus. Peppy looks around the room, dismayed that his other request didn't show up.

"Alright Lazarus, why won't your team talk, they're like robots or something." Falco asked.

"I cannot force them to speak, they have chosen not to, and I respect their choice, I only act as a guide, not really a king or a leader." Lazarus responded.

"I believe General Hare has something to say." Said Theta gesturing towards Peppy.

"Ah Peppy my friend, I did not see you over there, I've forgotten the whole reason we're here." Said Lazarus now looking Peppy's direction.

"Well, the other person I've requested has not yet shown up, but I don't think she is coming, she has a harsh background, she used to live here until everyone turned on her." Peppy said as he slid the CD into a slot in the wall. The lights dimmed down as the screen flickered on, but before Peppy could speak, a soldier walked into the room.

"Sir, there is some questionable characters requesting to see you." Said the guard

"I think I spoke too soon, alright I'll go check it out." Said Peppy as the lights turned back on. As soon as Peppy left, the conversation resumed.

"Lazarus, how do you know the old general anyways?" Katt asked.

"During the time of his wife, Vivian's, illness, I helped support their family financially, with Peppy constantly caring for Vivian, he couldn't focus on his job or anything." Lazarus responds. "Then another tragedy struck, Peppy disappeared along with James McCloud and Pigma Dengar. For the next few days I stayed with Lucy and Vivian and took care of them, when he got home, I learned that young Fox McCloud had become an orphan and Peppy took him in." Lazarus continued. "With Peppy becoming Fox's surrogate father, things got even more crazy, then the bomb was dropped, Vivan had died a few days later. Now Peppy was grappling with caring for two children and depression, with my help, he was able to cope with the loss and he went on with life." Lazarus finished.

The group was silent for the rest of the time until Peppy came back into the room with a group of bounty hunters.

Alex looked around the room, he had never felt such a strange mix of feelings. One of the groups appeared very solemn and tense with all black uniforms, the other group had a strange look of fear and couriosity as his group walked in. Alex looked in Kursed's direction and tried to read her expression, but she kept the same hard face, in fact the room seemed to fuel it. Clark was a little bit more under control, the gleam in his eyes now dull, his cocky grin had disappeared.

"Peppy, why did you have to pick a bunch of stiffs for this mission, these guys are almost worse than Lazarus's people." The blue falcon asked.

Alex could feel the solemn mood of one of the people in black shift to aggressive as the avian said this. Kursed began advancing to the blue avian.

"Well Falco Lombardi, I'm surprised you don't recognize me, we met in the skies of Kew, and I shot your sorry hide down." Kursed hissed in Falco's face.

"You're that dirty scum Kursed right?" Said Falco with a fire in his eyes. "I can see why Peppy picked you, if you can clip my wings, then no pilot can stop you." He continued. "But what about these guys?" Said Falco looking at the rest of the team.

"This is Clark Robin, one of the most brutal bounty hunters in the galaxy, he's able to shoot a stray hair off your head from 40 yards." Kursed said pointing at Clark, he just nodded his head.

"I'm Alex, just Alex." Said Aelx before Kursed introduced him. "I joined Kursed to try and figure out who I am." He finished

"You forgot the part where you can extend your claws out like a row of sharp knives, and rip a man twice your size in half." Said Clark bitterly

" Yeah that's believeable." Falco laughed.

Alex just closes his eyes and tried to fill his mind with hatred and rage. When he opened his eyes, the crowd stared at him with fear, even Lazarus was slightly afraid. Alex held out his arm, and like switch blades, his claws shot out of his hand to the length of at least 6 inches. Alex needed to calm down, he could feel something inside of him slowly get out of control**. **To Alex's relief, he was able to force the thoughts out of his head and shift back to normal.

"That was freaky, I was more scared of him changing to a monster than the claws though."said Lucy as she shook her head.

"Now that our introductions have been made, lets get on with presentation shall we, Hane dim the lights." Peppy shouted as he began walking to the front of the room.

"The reason I've brought you all here was that the Cornerian army has a crisis on it's hands that we can't handle." Peppy continued. "As you know, Dash Bowman had recently betrayed the Lylat system and took over half of the Lylat into his control." Peppy says, a large map of planets pulled up onto the screen, as a large green line seperated Bowman's territory with the rest. "He's done this with a new ally, something much more sinister than aparoids or even Andross's hideous transformation." Peppy pushed a button and the screen shifted to a picture of a black haired wolf posing with what looked like his girl friend. "This is Jack Sorense, head of Project Alex." Said Peppy.

"Well that's quite a coincidence." Said Lazarus looking in Alex's direction, but Alex was drifting off into a dream like state. _Project Alex, what is Project Alex, _he thought to himself. Then a child's voice filled his head "_It's your gift, the reason that your emotions cause you to change into a violent monster, the reason you can heal on the spot, the reason why the man in black tried to kill you." _It said.

Alex slowly pulled himself back to reality, he didn't know what just happened, but now he knew all about Project Alex.

"About 2 years ago, he had started the project to…" Peppy began

"To avenge his wife and son's death, the super beings would hunt and kill crime lords and common criminals, or that was the plan at least." Alex interupted.

"Yet another strange coincidence." Lazarus said to himself, it was strange that Alex knew about project Alex, and looked fairly similar to Jack Sorense, what was going on?

"Correct, but the plan failed when Bowman figured out what he was doing and attacked is laboratory and tried to steal the enhanced specimens, or Supramorphs as we have dubbed them." Peppy continued, "We tried to hide Jack and his specimens, but to no avail." The screen shifted again to a smoking building. "Just a few days ago, Dash Bowman's men had attacked the hidden laboratory and took all of the Supramorphs in the building. Then a newspaper article popped onto the screen, "Massacre in the dark." Read the headline. "In the short time of only 3 days, the Supramorphs have killed over a hundred people under Bowman's command, I know I may be asking the impossible, but with your help, I think we can stop them." The lights slowly turned back on as Peppy stepped off the Podium.

* * *

The new team waited in the briefing room getting introductions straight, who's who and all of that. Alex took a liking Lazarus and his team, once you got past their solemn attitude, they can be very outgoing. Falco and his team were very outgoing from the start, but it took them abit to adjust to speaking with bounty hunters. Things weren't perfect though, the whole question was, what is Alex? Some of them however, took great interest in Alex's abilities. The questions flowed like a burst dam, Alex could tell thay had been wanting ask since Alex showed them his "transformation" trying to find out as much as Alex coud do, but Kursed intervined.

"Come on guys, leave the kid alone, we've all had a rough day give him a rest." Said Kursed

"Speaking of rest, you will all be staying together in a government supplied ship, as much as you hate the idea, I think it will grow on you, this has everything that you need that some of your home ships might not have" Said Peppy

He gestured to the teams to follow him outside.

"This is going to be fun." Falco said sarcastically.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry that this chapter was boring, ironically it's also my longest chapter, but its going to speed up again in the next chapter **


	7. Training

**Disclaimer: Mostly everything in this story belongs to Nintendo**

Alex stared out in the large blue ocean of Corneria, with the afternoon sun shining upon it, it looked like a sea of sapphires. He stepped onto the deck of the ferry, welcoming the feel of the ocean breeze on his face.

"I've forgotten just how beautiful it was out here." Said Iota sitting on the deck.

"You've been here before?" asked Theta

"Way back when I was like 5, my dad would take his ship and fly us over the Grand Ocean, those were some of the best times of my life." Said Iota, he was beginning to grin.

"Ha, beautiful as it is, nobody ever swims in it." Laughed Falco

"Don't get started on that legend, the only sharks in Corneria are the mafia's" groaned Clark

"What legend, now I'm curious." Lucy chimed in.

"Alright, way out in the ocean lives legendary Cornerian sharks, long ago after a huge war, they made a treaty with the founders of Corneria. It stated that they would not harm Cornerians unless they tried to go to their underwater world. To this day, they still uphold the treaty, so anytime you swim in that water, you'll be mercilessly dragged to the deep." Falco finished with a grin.

"I hope you're finished with your fairytales we're almost there, look." Said Epsilon pointing at an island, from a distance, a large tube could be seen sticking out of the island

As the ferry docked on the island, the team got a good look at just how big this building was. Up close, the tube was bigger than the tallest sky scraper in Corneria, and wider than three skyscrapers combined, little green dots could be seen hovering around the tip. A few soldiers escorted them to the front door, inside was a large waiting room with a thick glass window looking around the interior of the building. The others had never seen such a sight, outside the window was hundreds of engineers working on a large ship, although it only took up a smaller portion of the gigantic tube. A soldier pressed a few buttons and an elevator appeared at the glass window. The team stepped inside and then the soldier pressed G1, the elevator quickly took them to the ground floor. When they stepped out, a stubby frog was there to greet them.

"Hey guys, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Slippy Toad, chief engineer here at Cornerian Spacecraft Assembly, or CSA for short." He said enthusiastically

"Nice to see you again Slippy." Lucy said giving him a quick hug.

"Yeah froggy, long time no see." Said Falco

"Alright, I'm here to give you a quick tour of the _LSS_ _Sky_ _Atlantis, _our latest model of multi-purpose spacecraft." Slippy said eagerly walking into the ship.

Everyone else quickly followed. The tour just showed them the highlights of the ship, expanded living space (9 rooms instead of standard 4), new Wii model ROBs, and the latest in high tech weaponry.

"We've been working for years on creating this model, we believe it's going to last the next 8 years or so as the top model." Said Slippy.

"So why are you letting us use this? Peppy wouldn't just fork over millions of credits just so we can go and crash this on a mission" Interrupted Kursed.

"This deal benefits both of us, you guys get living space, and we get test drivers." He finished, but the last statement made everyone a little uncomfortable.

"Would the team please report outside." Said a soldier running into the room.

"See you guys later." Said Slippy.

As the team stepped off the ship, the soldier showed them to Sergent William Grey, elite combat instructor for the Cornerian army.

"I am Sergent Grey, and I am here to instruct you on how to use many of our weapons and vehicles." He said in a quick militiristic manner. "As I can see, you think you already know how to fly, but we'll test that in a minute."

Alex shifted uncomfortably, it was going to be a long day. Sgt. Grey took them back to the elevator and to one of the higher floors of the facility. Finally the elevator stopped moving and they walked onto a suspended hangar. Just a ahead were arwings waiting for pilots

"The General has instructed me to see what you've got, then give you my analaysis." Said Sgt. Grey, "Now get into those arwings and I'll instruct you from there." He shouted.

Alex quickly ran over to his arwing and hopped into the open cockpit.

"Good, nice to see that you can sit in without any problems, now close the hatch and take off." Grey shouted over the communicator on the arwing.

Remembering what Clark and Kursed did in their arwings, he quickly pressed a few buttons and the engines began to hum as the hatch closed, _so far so good,_thought Alex. When the hum reached a high pitched whine, he hit a green button and the energy stored in the thrusters launched Alex straight down the runway. When he approached the edge, he pulled back on the flight stick and his arwing began to lift off of the ground.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team was taking off without a hitch.

"Good, now it's time for the hard part, I want you to line up in basic attack formation." He shouted.

Alex started to panic, he had no idea about military formations. He watched as everyone began to enter the formation.

"Alex, fly closer to my right wing." Said Kursed over the radio.

Instantly Alex flew over to Kursed's right side and stood there.

"Now I'm going to send in some mock enemies, let's see how you handle the situation" Grey's voice said over the radio,"Go!" he shouted.

Ships could be seen flying towards their group, all with charged laser bolts. Kursed veered off to the right while Lazarus and his team split into their small group. Alex tagged along with Star Falco while Clark was already shooting at the enemies. The enemy ships locked on and fired, the bolts immediately began following their target. Three of the shots smashed into Clark, blowing away his right wing. With his arwing out of control, Clark's aim was greatly hindered, he had to depend totally on homing charge shots. Alex broke away from his group to help Clark, who was trying his hardest to dodge enemy attacks.

Alex flew over to Clark's attackers and locked on. He smashed the fire button unloading hundreds of small bolts of energy into his opponents. Two of which were shot down and fell crashing into the ocean below. The other attackers turned around and began searching for another target, they spotted Kursed by herself and called other enemies to attack her. That was their mistake, Kursed performed a somersault out of the group of enemy ships. Now with them in front of her, she focused her fire into the center of the group and mashed the fire button. The rest of the team joined her and finished off the rest of the enemies.

"Not bad, but the biggest threat is still yet to come, in my experience as a pilot, your enemies always have a last resort attack, usually their biggest weapon, let's see how you deal with that." Said Grey.

In the distance the team could see a large squid like creature flying towards them.

"Note that arwings have scanners built into the lock-on system, I suggest you use it before you're fried to a crisp." Grey's voice shouted over the radio.

Alex looked down at is controls, on the lock-on console's screen he saw a clipboard icon. He pressed it with his finger and the message "Searching for target" appeared on screen.

A large circle closed around the large squid machine and a loading bar popped onto the screen.

"Enemy analysis, CSA Battle Ship V-5, has 8 large energy cannons suspended on large cords. Main weak points are the attachment points of the cords." Said a female voice.

A large orange bar filled up on screen and large red dots pointed to the attachment points.

As the battle ship moved closer, Alex could see the ends of the cords open up, revealing large balls of sheer energy charging up. Each individual arm pointed at an arwing and the balls of energy changed into long, thick bolts. The bolts scattered the team into separate positions. The bolts charged up again and began firing at the individual targets, Falco took a head on hit and the ships shields were dropped down to zero, another hit and he would have to retire the mission.

Kursed and Theta worked together to try and stop the machine, Theta distracted the guns while Kursed tried her hardest to blow away one of the attatchment points. Their plan worked for awhile, but after they shot off one of the guns, a large swarm of homing missiles and mines spewed out of the sides of the ship. Everyone was now in evade mode, with a constant flow of missiles, stopping the ship seemed impossible.

"Alex, I need some covering fire, I'm going in." shouted Iota.

Alex followed Iota into the carnage and began shooting missiles that got to close to him. When Iota neared the ship, literally hundreds of missiles his position. Alex tried to destroy them all, but it was hopeless, Iota would be shot down.

Iota however, used this to his advantage, he moved so close to one the attachments that the nose of his arwing almost touched it, then he pulled up so fast that the missles couldn't follow him and they pounded into the battle ship, destroying another gun. Everyone watched in awe as Iota swerved around and led the missiles to their destination, blowing away the guns one by one.

Sgt. Grey looked onto the battle field, and his jaw almost dropped to the ground. Iota had single handedly taken down the battle ship's guns. The now almost disarmed battle ship still had to be finished off, but no other weak points could be seen. Then it's final weapon revealed it's self. The center of the ship began to swell up, changing the ship into a rotund ball shape.

"It's not stopping!" Theta shouted.

"Are you kidding me? Is it going to pop on us or what?" Kursed laughed.

"Let's not stick around to find out." Said Lazarus speeding off into the other direction.

The others followed suit and flew away. When they had flown away far away enough to only see a silhouette of the ship, they stopped. A few more seconds passed and a huge blue explosion could be seen from their position., it must have been miles in diameter!

"Congratulations team, you passed with flying colors, but the next test is tomorrow, I'll see you then."

The team headed to the _Sky Atantis_ to stay there the night, it wasn't going to be in space just yet, but it was better than the military cots.

"That was insane for just a test, flying and fighting is the most crazy thing I've done." Alex shouted as he sat down on at a table in the ships cafeteria.

"Get used to it kid, it's one of the most efficient ways of attack and defense, so we're probably going to be in the air a lot." Iota yawned.

"So was that your first time flying an arwing?" Lucy asked.

"It is as far as I can tell, I might have before I lost my memory." Alex responded.  
"That was seriously your first time? Jeez, I'm glad your're on our side, that was some of the most accurate shooting I've ever seen!" Falco shouted.

Things went on like this for awhile, they chatted and ate, learning abit about eachother, then Theta brought up a problem.

"Um, I've just done the math, and one of us is going to have to share a room." Said Theta.

"I've got dibs on this one." Said Falco quickly sliding into the room closest to him.

Falco had started a chain reaction, now everyone began madly searching for rooms. Until it eventually ended like this, everyone got their own rooms except Iota and Alex. They really didn't mind each other so it worked out okay.

"As long as you don't wake up at 12:00 like my last roommate, then your okay with me." Said Iota.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Laughed Theta.

"It means I might be getting a full 5 hours of sleep tonight." Iota said with a grin

Alex walked into the room and slumped down onto the bed, _this is so much better than the couch at the motel_ he thought to himself with a sigh. He lay there for a second as sleep slowly overtook him.

_Jack pulled his girlfriend closer to him and gave her a kiss. _

"_Sophie, I was thinking, I've never felt so close to a woman in my life, I feel so happy when I'm around you."He said _

"_Then that makes two of us." She whispered back. _

"_Sophie, do you really love me? I need to know." Jack said _

"_Yes, of course I do." She said shaking her head, "Why would I not." _

"_Good," Jack pushed her away and got down on his knee. "Sophia, will you marry me?" _

_She looked at Jack and smiled. _

"_Yes…" _

* * *

**A/N: This chapter was a little more action packed, I'm trying to write aerial fight scenes (after all, Iota said that they were probably going to do it alot) so I'm just practicing, hopefully it was good. I'm terrible at writing fluff, so please excuse the Jack memory if you don't like it. **


	8. Invasion

**Hey, Spencer here. Just so you know, many elements to this story belong to nintendo, and some of it belongs to me 'kay? **

"Hello, Alex" A voice whispered from the darkness

Alex was startled awake, _am I still dreaming, _he thought to himself. He took a look around the room, and there standing in front of him was a young ten year boy. He just stood by the bed, holding his hand out. Alex reached out and shook it's hand, oddly it felt as if an electric current was running through it.

"Hi, and you are?" Alex said.

"Oh, right, I'm a little different than the last time we met." The kid responded.

"I don't every remember meeting someone like you." Alex said shaking his head.

"I was the boy in the hotel and at the meeting, you remember that right?" The kid said.

Alex paused to think for a few seconds.

"How can that be? You look at least four years older than the kid in the hotel." Alex said after awhile

"Six actually, but that doesn't matter, I need to tell you something." Said the kid

"Alright, go ahead." Said Alex

"I know this is all confusing, let me explain, I am you, or I represent you, in a way," The kid said pointing at Alex "I change according to your innerself, I age at the rate one part of your mind does basically."

"Okay, so that makes me, mentally, a litte kid?" Alex said.

"Sort of, since you were literally "born" just a few days ago, your body quickly physically matured, but a part of you didn't, the part that all the others don't have." Said the kid.

Alex thought about the kids words for a second. The part that he thought drew him in the most was "others". He thought more about it, and then it hit him.

"So the others would be the rest of the Supramorphs?" Alex said, finally getting it. He knew something was wrong with him, with his mutations and all, but he didn't know he was a monster. Stress filled Alex's mind, _what would happen if the others found out? Would I be killed? Would I be forced into experimentation? _The list in his head was endless.

"Exactly, and the part they don't have is purity, a free will, your mind is an empty canvas, you choose what I become." Said the kid nodding his head, then it suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Alex just sighed, he didn't know what to feel. It wasn't everyday that you find out that you're a monster, the only purpose you have is killing. Then again, the kid said his mind was like an empty canvas, leaving some hope that he might do something good.

Too distracted by his new revelation, he didn't realize that no other presence was in the room. Shocked, Alex looked around the room and realized that Iota wasn't in the room anymore. Alex looked over to the alarm clock, it read 12:00 A.M.. _Strange, why would Iota complain about not getting any sleep, but get up at midnight? _Alex thought to himself. He stepped off of the bed and left the room trying to figure out where Iota might have went to. The ship was eerily still in the night, nothing moved, the dead silence made Alex's footfalls sound like loud thuds. He closed his eyes and perked up his ears, listening for any other disturbances in the night. It was the strangest thing, focusing totally on hearing. He could hear the snores of his teammates, the chirps and buzzing from the bugs outside. Eventually he pinpointed one noise, small murmuring voices. Small voices, that were coming from outside.

Alex quickly, but lightly ran down the hallway. Trusting only his ears, he eventually made his way to the entrance of the _Atlantis_. He followed the voices into the large construction room, as he got closer to the voice, he could tell it was Iota's, and some else that Alex did not know. Slowly making his way over to the stairs, he climbed just as slow and exited the building. Every step he took, the voices became louder and louder. Until Alex was able to make out words.

"I'm going to ask you again, where is the freak?" One voice whispered.

"Why should I tell you? You're nothing but a slime ball if you think you can use these for your own gain" Iota said with a heavy strain in his voice.

"I don't intend on using them, but Bowman does, and our sources say that the freak here is a danger to his plans, so before I am forced to harm you, tell me where it is." The voice whispered.

Alex heard a small "no", then shuffling noise and a loud _thump!_ Followed by Iota's groans of pain. This made Alex move much faster, this guy was probably going to kill Iota. Finally he found the source of the voices.

Iota was tied up to a tree, a man in a black trench coat was pounding him while another man watched. Alex realized that the man in the trench coat was the same man in black that tried to kill him and Kursed a few nights before! Of course, now Alex knew that this man was probably one of the stolen Supramorphs. Silently, Alex moved in on the man in black, totally focused on stealth. Alex could feel a strange feeling in his body as his normal black fur turned into the darkest shade you could possibly get. His claws extended as he crouched down in a pouncing position.

Iota looked face to face with his captor, this was possibly going to be the end of him. He tried to remain consious as the strong creature in front of him pummled his body. Iota was about to give up when he heard a soft _whoosh_. The man in front of him was swept away as as invisible hands broke Iota's bondage. Dazed and confused, he didn't know what was going on, the man in front of him was mercilessly getting the beating of a life time by a hazy figure. The other man let out a high pitched whistle as other black figures emerged from the woods. They had all set their sights on the blur. Iota snapped out of his dizziness and reached inside of his boots. He pulled out two small metal rods and with the flick of his wrist, bright yellow sparks had burst from the tips as the rods extended into a dagger length weapon. Using his weapons illumination for light, he attacked the dark creatures with all of his might.

Iota jumped up and brought down his shock rod with a crushing blow to the creature nearest to him. With a loud crunch, the man collapsed to the ground. One of the others noticed Iota and pounced in his direction. With lighting reflexes, Iota thrust the shock rods into directly in front of him and impaled it. Pulling upwards, he ripped the rods from the creatures torso out of it's shoulders, leaving two huge gaping holes into the creature's torso. It fell to the ground, writhing as the electric current quickly left it's body. The blur was moving swiftly from one creature to another, blood spurted out as it moved away from it's targets. Iota pointed his weapon at one behind the blur and shot a huge bolt of electricty from the rod straight into the creature. The creature was frozen in place by paralyzing electricity. Iota ran over and with a powerful slash, he lobbed the creatures head off.

Alex was locked in a grappling postion with his oppenent. It began to over power him as three others jumped onto him, Alex was about to give up. Then he saw it. A wraith like creature stepped from the trees. In one swift motion, it smoothly glided over to Alex.

"You have power beyond your wildest dreams, embrace it." The creature hissed.

It shoved it's bony, clawed hand into Alex's chest. Slowly, Alex's mind filled with the most extreme hate and rage he had ever experienced. Everything stopped moving. Red filled his vision, Alex could feel his body bending and twisting, feeling stronger and stronger. With everything around him stopped, he took advantage of the situation and with a flurry of slashes, he unleashed his power on the creatures around him.

Iota saw the blur had disappeared and the creatures just froze in their position. Iota walked closer to the frozen creatures, their stupefied looks still frozen on their faces. A few seconds later, Alex appeared out of nowhere. The creatures around him collapsed into themselves, becoming nothing but red mush.

"Alex!?' Iota ran over to his team mate, but instantly recoiled. Alex had become much different. His body had become thicker, more muscled, he now towered over Iota. The only thing that hadn't changed was Alex's ice blue eyes.

"I..o..ta?" Alex mumbled with a sickly growl.

"What did you do to yourself?" Iota said now approaching Alex.

"I…ca..can't feel…my legs." Alex said falling to his knees. Iota was close enough to touch Alex now.  
"Hold on, it's okay, just, um…" Iota didn't know what to say, he didn't know if Alex was calm or not. And if he wasn't, he wouldn't even know how to calm him down. Alex slowly turned to Iota's direction. Iota now started to back off a little, _What do I do now?_ He thought.

"Iota…every thing's red." Alex said with out a pause now, Iota could see that Alex was starting to lose consciousness.

"Whoa big guy, don't faint on me now, try and stay awake, come on snap out of it Alex." Iota said running up to Alex. He definitely knew that he couldn't carry this new Alex on his own. But, Alex didn't stop, Alex fell on his hands, until he fell over onto his side.

The world had turned to hazy red, Alex could barely make out Iota's voice.

"Whoa big guy, don't faint on me now…snap out of it…" was all Alex could make out, the rest was garbled gibberish. Alex looked around and let go, and fell into unconsciousness. Alex woke up in the hospital bed, back in the Katina hospital. Standing by his bed was the kid from before, well to be specific he was now a teenager. Alex sighed with relief  
" Thank goodness you're here, you probably know more about what's been going on. Every thing's been a red blur to me." Alex said

"I know the answers, but I don't know if you'll like them." The kid said worried.

"Just go ahead and tell me kid." Alex said sitting up.

"Alright, you've been mutated further." The kid said.

"What do you mean by that?" Alex said, now he was worried.

"Well, during the last stages of Project Alex, Jack installed an "evolutionary" part to your brain." The kid said. "Of course it's harmless alone, but another side, other than me and you, controls it."

"You mean that wraith?" Alex said remembering his battle in the forest.

"That's him, he wants you to mutate to your fullest, become an ultimate dominate species." The kid answered.

"So if we control it to, why can he mutate me?" Alex said.

"He attacks only when you are on the brink of unconsciousness, or when you have strong emotions." The kid answered. "I brought you here because it's a temporary sanctuary, I can only hold him down without you for so long."

"Alright, so what was the damage done?" Alex asked.

"Well you're full of questions, just look for yourself." The kid said pointing at a mirror.

Alex walked over to the mirror, expecting the worst. Only a glance shocked him, now he knew this wasn't good. When he finally got a good look at himself, there was no hiding it now, the monster within had been exposed. Alex shook his head.

"That can't be me, this is only a dream, it can't be me." Fear had taken over his emotions, not really fear for himself, but fear for what he could do.

"We need to see Jack, he can get rid of the other side for you, just hope we can prevent him from causing anymore damage." The kid said.

"How do I get back?" Alex asked solemnly.

"Just think about where you were before this, remember, you were with Iota in the forest outside of the CSA." The kid said.

Alex closed his eyes and thought about the forest and Iota. He could feel the sterile hospital environment change to a mossy forest. Alex could feel someone tugging on his legs. He opened his eyes and saw Iota dragging him, or trying at least.

Iota was struggling with his load, he had to get Alex back to the base, there he and the rest of the team could figure out what to do. Then he stopped cold, he felt Alex began to stir. Iota let go and jumped back as Alex stood back up. Iota quickly pulled out his shock rods and pointed them at Alex.

"What do you think you're doing?" Alex said to Iota.

At this Iota lowered his weapon, he hoped Alex was back to himself, mentally at least.

"I'm trying to get us out of here, we need to get back to the CSA and tell them we have intruders." Iota said running back to the main building.

Alex just followed close behind, he didn't want any surprises on the way back. When they reached the building, Iota ran inside and triggered the alarm. Within seconds the whole base had been in an uproar. Iota and Alex ran straight back to the _Atlantis_, Alex mentally prepared for the confrontations.

Kursed shot out of her bed, the alarm had been triggered, she ran to her closet and slipped into battle gear. She froze as she heard some one walking down the hall. Kursed listened to it, whatever it was didn't sound like anyone she knew. Slowly, she crept over to the door and pressed the open button. When the door sprang open she jumped out of the room and delivered a round house kick, to what felt like a rock. She fell to the ground in pain, clutching her sore foot.

"Hey no need to do that, it's just me." Said Iota bending over to help Kursed up.

"How did you do that?" Kursed asked.

"Do what?" Iota responded.

"Send me to the ground like that." She shouted. "How did you do that?"

"That wasn't me, that was Alex right here." Iota said pointing to the space next to him.

"I don't see anything." Kursed said

"Oh, right, I'm in camouflage, hold on a sec." Alex said. He let go of the stealthy feelings he had before, slowly, his fur changed back to it's normal black. Kursed took one look and jumped.

"What happened to you?" She asked

"I'll explain later, we need to get out of here, there's been a breach, there are Supramorphs on the island." Alex said. "We need to wake everyone up, if they haven't been already."

"Maybe we should do it, without you, you even managed to freak me out, so let's not find out what anyone else thinks yet." Kursed said.

Alex just sighed, he knew it was true.

"Alright, I'll meet you guys in the cafeteria." Alex said as he walked on.

Iota and Kursed just nodded an ran on to go get the others. Alex waited for about five minutes before he began to see people walk into the room. He decided to hide himself until Kursed and Iota made it back. His teammates around him were asking if anyone knew what was going on. Finally everyone was in the cafeteria, Kursed went to sit down while Iota stood at the front of the room.

"Alright team, this is very important, the base has been breached by Supramorphs, we need to get this ship out of here." Iota said.

Iota was interupted by the sound of gun fire outside of the ship, everyone got up and looked out of the window. Dark shapes were moving in and out of soldiers, ripping them to shreds.

There was no doubt now, Supramorphs had invaded. Alex sat up and ran outside, he had now shifted from camouflage to attack in seconds. Everyone was shocked to see this towering figure grab the shapes and throw them to the ground. Alex managed to rip one of them in half. With his new mutations, he was able to handle more than one easily. Each one of them had eventually fallen. But, as Alex knew, they weren't dead yet.

"Oh jeez, now it's coming for us." Lucy shouted as she pulled out her gun.

Alex had began to walk back to the ships cafeteria, little did he know that everyone had their guns out. When he stepped into the room, all he saw was a bright flash of green light before he was pinned against the wall.

"People have a weird way of saying "thank you" around here." Alex said as he picked himself up. The burns in his chest quickly disappeared.

"Alex!?" they all shouted.

* * *

**_A/N: I planned on finishing the training chapter, but then I had a better idea, so there is no training part 2_**


	9. Mission 0: Escaping the Storm

**Disclaimer: Due to the fact that nintendo owns a majority of the fanfiction, it mostly belongs to them...**

It had been a few minutes before everyone got over the initial shock of Alex's mutation. Of course, a few minutes is too much time. Alex could hear the foot steps of the Supramorphs, they were already headed for the ship. Clark readied his modified pistol as he slowly inched closer to the cafeteria entrance. Loud clanks could be heard from down the hall. Everyone had silenced, the clanks had spread out, some could be heard in the celling, another could be heard headed straight down the hallway. The clanks moved closer and closer, the team was ready for the fight.

Then it all stopped, the only thing that could be heard was the heavy breathing coming from each other. Clark slowly raised his gun, and stepped closer to the doorway. When he looked out, nothing was there, but something came from above. Clark knocked off of his feet by a powerful blow to the head. Everyone looked up as two Supramorphs punched through the celling. The carnage had begun as laser bolts soared through the air. But all shots were in vain, the Supramorphs were literally running off and on the walls, dodging every shot, slashing with their razor sharp claws. One swiped at Lucy, giving her a large gash straight down her chest. It followed with a one-two punch straight to her face and she went down. Kursed ran straight to Lucy's opponent. She pulled out her staff and jabbed the Supramorph in the ribs, Kursed clenched the staff as blue energy filled the tip, then in a brilliant burst of fire, the Supramorph had been fried. It's fur and skin had all been blown away. Kursed bent down and propped Lucy onto her shoulder and began a staggering dash to a safer end of the room.

Meanwhile, Katt was helping Falco deal with two other Supramorphs. Falco had used his dual blasters to knock the Supramorphs off of her back, while Katt finished off the stunned Supramorphs. Lazarus was being swarmed by three other supramorphs. With amazing skill the old lion used a diamond edged sword to cut through his adversaries. Using smooth movements, he delivered intricate slices, each one cutting nerves and pressure points. All three quickly jumped back, trying to escape the sudden pain. With a powerful backhand slash, he cut all three of the dazed Supramorphs into 6 equal pieces. The rest of Lazarus's team had been quickly dispatching more supramorphs that had entered the room, while Alex was using his power to fight the supramorphs. Each one that got in his way, he instantly pounded a hole through them. Clark eventually had recovered from his knock out and used pinpoint blaster shots to knock down the supramorphs that were attacking Lucy and Kursed.

The fight was becoming a lost cause as the same Supramorphs had got back up and attacked again. Kursed had been fighting with all of her might, but exhaustion had finally set in. Her strikes became weaker and weaker until one of the Supramorphs gave her two large gashes along her chest and a swift blow to the back of her head. With a combination of exhaustion and injury, Kursed collapsed to the ground. Lucy still conscious, although barely, pulled out her blaster and unloaded thousands of shots into the group of supramorphs. It still wasn't enough to stop them. Alex looked around, the room was full of broken morale and carnage. Kursed and Lucy had been knocked unconscious or worse. Falco had been taking the most brutal beating of his life while Katt was on the ground motionless. The people that remained standing was himself, Clark, Lazarus and his team. Alex knew of only one thing that would end the madness, his own madness. He needed to feel the same rage he had in the woods. He clenched his eyes shut and tried to feel the intense, mindless hate he had only a short while ago. It took him a minute, but finally the room began to change to a hazy red and everything had stopped.

Alex looked around, the time to act was now. Alex ran to the Supramorphs that filled the room and cut them to ribbons. When the haze began to clear, he felt light headed. The room was slowly starting to fade, but Alex fought unconsciousness this time. Everything began moving at normal speed again. Iota looked around, the supramorph he had been fighting fell to pieces. They all waited a few minutes, just to see if it was really over. When the mush on the floor didn't retake shape, the remaining team members cheered. They left the ship and carried out the injured team members. They headed to the CSA hospital area, which was already almost full with soldiers. Alex had stayed behind, he was examining the mess on the ship. Not all of the supramorphs were bloody piles of mush, the ones that Lazarus cut in half hadn't put themselves together.

When he finally entered the hospital waiting area, he let out the big news

"Guys, those weren't Supramorphs." He said

"What do you mean, they perfectly fit the description." Clark said.

"Someone's trying to replicate the results, these aren't perfect Supramorphs." Alex explained.

"So that means that we just fought clones!?" Theta said exasperated.

"Yeah, but they're easier to kill, you just have to cut out their vital organs." Alex said

"Easier to kill! Lucy and that other girl are half dead and Katt's been put into a coma, yeah they were really easy to kill!" Falco shouted.

"If what you're saying is true, then how do you know so much about what one 'looks like' exactly?" Lazarus said calmly

Alex closed his eyes and sighed.

"Because I am one." He finally said.

The room was silent for awhile, then Lazarus spoke.

"Now that explains a lot of things," He started, "But then it opens up a whole new set of questions, why haven't you killed us yet?" He said.

"Maybe he's a spy for Bowman, trying to stop us from getting rid of his monsters." Clark shouted angirly.

"I don't believe that for a second, why would help us kill the clones and then tell us he's one of them?" Iota said back.

"It could be an act, I've learned a lot about how people can back stab you, don't be stupid and fall for this." Clark snapped back. They all stopped arguing when the door opened and Peppy walked in solemnly.

"I know this is a bad time, but the area is still not secure, more Supramorphs are swimming in, I don't know how they made it this far, and I don't know how many." He told them.

"More of them, how many clones does Bowman have?" said Alex.

"I don't think we can fight them all, 8 was bad enough." Theta said burying her face into her hands.

"Maybe we don't have to fight, Peppy, do you have enough transport for a mass evacuation." Said Lazarus.

"One can only hope, I think there might be enough arwings and battle ships for everyone, we sure aren't leaving by sea though." Said Peppy.

"Let's give it a shot then, we don't have anything to lose, at least we have a chance if we evacuate." Said Iota.

Peppy looked around the room and took a deep breath, pulled out his radio and said.

"Control do you copy, over."

"Yessir, read you loud and clear, over." Control responded.

"Prep the island for evacuation, we're getting out of this deathtrap, over." Peppy said.

"The whole island!" control shouted over radio.

"Everyone on it, get them out of here ASAP, over." Peppy responded.

The radio was silent for a minute,

"Roger that, control out." It finally said.

The whole room was lit up by bright red lights while an annoying whine of sirens filled the air.

"Come on, we need to get the others out of the hospital!" Theta said.

The rest of the team followed her in, more able bodied soldiers also followed in and dragged out the injured. The team searched around the beds to find the rest of their team, all of them still asleep. Alex delicately pushed two beds out of the hospital while Falco helped.

Peppy pulled out his radio again,

"Slippy are you there." He said.

"Read you loud and clear Peppy." Slippy chirped.

"I need you to warm up the _Atlantis_, we need to take off now." Said Peppy.

"Okay, I'm on it. Over and out." Slippy said as the radio clicked off.

"Come on, we need to get you out of here." Peppy shouted to the team.

"What about the soldiers." Alex yelled over the siren

"They can take care of themselves, we need to get you guys out of here." Said Peppy.

Alex nodded his head and pushed the beds onward. They followed their way to the ship construction tubes, which was being overrun by Supramorphs. Soldiers were running left and right, fighting or running away. Over on the far end, they could see the _Atlantis_ it's engines were emitting a slight hum.

"Hurry up, we need to get out of here, they still haven't made it over here yet." Slippy shouted from the entrance.

Alex and Falco stopped and lifted the girls into their arms and began their dash to the ship. One by one, the team ran in, Alex perked up his ears, he could hear the Supramorph's pattering footsteps running across the pavement.

Alex was last inside, he tried to get to the control room, but everything started rumbling. He ran inside of the room nearest to him. Then with a huge _BOOM, _the ship blasted off. Sending Alex hurtling forward.

Within a few seconds, the room settled, the lights flickered back on and Alex was flat on his face. Next to him was Lucy, he pushed himself off of the ground and hoisted Lucy onto a near by bed and checked her bandages. Everything seemed okay, she was somehow still unconscious.

Alex could hear Kursed begin to move around behind him. He turned around and saw her slowly stand propping herself against the chair next to her. She shoved her self off and began limping towards Alex.

"Jeez you're made of tough stuff." he said.

"Is Lucy okay?" was all she said.

"Yeah, she's fine over here on the bed." Alex said pointing at Lucy.

Kursed just nodded her head and sat down. For the first time in Alex's eyes, she looked as if she was emotionally pained. Her features were not hard, she looked worn down by a burden.

"Hey, you okay Kursed?" said Alex as he sat down next her.

"Yeah I'm fine, where's everyone else?" She answered.

"I don't know, I was trying to find them when the ship took off. I think I can find them here though." Alex said.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Hold on a sec." Said Alex.

He shut his eyes and let all of his senses overtake him, he could hear shouts coming from the cockpit area.

"Someones going crazy over there." Alex said finally.

"Nothing seems to slow down around here." Kursed said sinking into the chair, she looked at Alex and smiled. "You know, most people don't know this, I think I can trust you, I have the ability to read minds." She said.

"That was kind of random." Alex laughed.

"Actually, I can look into your memories, maybe we can find out something about you" She said.

"Nice offer, but there's not really much in my head, as I recently found out." Alex said, "I'm a Supramorph, and I was only created a few days ago, so these few days have been my only memories."

Kursed still kept her smile.

"Good to know that you figured it out on your own." She said.

"Wait a second, you already knew?" Alex said in disbelief.

"Before even you knew, I've been looking into your head, you have memories, but not your own, they belong to Jack Sorense." Kursed said.

Alex didn't know what to think, all this time, Kursed had been probing hs mind, he really didn't feel safe anymore. In fact, she was probably reading these thoughts right now. Alex perked up his ears, he could hear footsteps running down the hall.

"Alex!, Kursed?, Oh, where are you guys…" A voice whined.

Alex poked his head out of the door, running like a madman was Slippy Toad.

"Hey, Slippy, we're in here!" Alex shouted

The frog literally skidded to a stop and turned around.

"I've been looking all over for you! Peppy's ready to give you guys the first mission." Slippy said panting.

"Do you think you can make it Kursed." Alex said looking in her direction, she was already limping towards the door.

"Of course I can, I've been worse off than this." She said.

"Alright off we go." Alex said following Slippy, Kursed trailing behind.

* * *

_Cornerian Spacestation Assembly_

Alex walked along an island cliff, the waves crashing against the jagged rocks.

Suddenly, his wrist communicator flashed on. Dash Bowman's face appeared on the screen.

"What's your status?" He said.

"We've taken Corneria's Spacestation assembly base." Alex said.

"Good, good, have you taken out the general's new pet?" Bowman said.

"They left the island, my men and I tried to chase him, but he took off." Alex answered.

"All right, make them useful and order them to take hostages, I'm sure the government would love to negotiate" Bowman said with a smirk. "For you, I have special mission, since you failed in killing here, I'm sending you out to find your lost brother, the one you found on Katina. He's a danger to our operations and he's surrounded by highly trained mercenaries and bounter hunters. I'm sending a team of mercenaries to your position. They are experienced in dealing with these kind of people, Bowman out."

The screen on Alex's wrist flickered off and a new screen appeared, giving him the location of rendezvous.

This Alex, is a different supramorph, one of the stolen ones. His tank malfunctioned while he was inside, and he came into the world with a free mind (among other things). When Bowman found out however, he gave Alex a choice. "Fight for me or fight your brothers, it doesn't really matter to me." He said. Of course Alex said yes, not really because of moral value, but his own gain. With Bowman, he led his brothers on attacks around the Lylat. Stealing and conquering, establishing fear in Bowmans territories and anywhere else that dare opposed their wrath. But power is addicting, and Alex wants more. To achieve this, he helped Bowman to create countless clones. All of which had some slight side effects. They all became the equivalent to a 90 year old man within months, their heart and head were major weak-points, with a good aim and a powerful blow, you could kill a clone easy. After their creation, Bowman wanted Jack's notes, or Jack himself to make a perfect supramorph. The CSA happened to be their first destination, hoping to find the general's notes on Jack's whereabouts.

Alex let out a howl and all of the shadows seemed to come alive. Within seconds, all of his clones had formed a mob around him. He issued Bowmans order, and they dispersed through out the island. While he galloped to the rendevous point.

_

* * *

_

LSS Sky Atlantis Battleship

The room was silent as Peppy gave them their mission.

"Okay team listen up, finding Jack is crucial to defeating the supramorphs, since he created them, he should know how to kill them. I had him dropped off in the jungles of Fortuna, where he now resides in an underground silo. I do not keep his exact location in any documents due to Bowman's discovery of the supramorphs, but I know the location of his general area. You probably can already guess that the mission is to find Jack before Bowman does. As for me, I've sent for a transport ship that will arrive in the Fortuna atmosphere at 1800 hours. Since Corneria is no longer safe, you will report to the planet Kew for your next missions. This data stick contains the area where Jack lives, place it in the machine and copy it to your arwings, see you later good night." Peppy said as he left the room.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but after today I think I'm going to get some shut eye, good night." Said Iota walking back his room.

"No argument there, I think I'll go check on Katt and Lucy first." Falco said following after Iota.

Soon everyone had gone except for Alex, Lazarus, Theta, and Kursed.

"What a crazy week this is turning out to be." Kursed said sinking into the sofa she was sitting on.

"No kidding, I guess that's the spice of life though." Lazarus said.

Alex looked around the room, everyone seemed exhausted, except for Theta. She seemed to have an itch she just couldn't scratch.

"Hey Theta what's on your mind." Alex asked out of the blue.

"Nothing." She quickly said.

"It doesn't look like nothing, I can feel you shaking the seat Theta." Lazarus said.

"Alright, I have a question for you Alex. I know it sounds dumb, but what is it like." She asked.

"What do you mean." Alex said confused.

"I mean, what's it like to be, well… a supramorph." She said.

Alex thought for a moment, what was it like, compared to another persons life.

"It has it's ups and downs." Alex said lamely.

"Explain, what's the upside?" Theta asked unfazed.

"I can accomplish feats of extreme mental and physical challenges." Alex said thinking quickly.

"Then what's the downside." She asked again.

Alex paused, should he really talk to this girl he hardly knows, about his inner struggles? Tell her about the fact that everyday, he has a chance of becoming a mindless, bloodthirsty monster?

"I think that question might be a little too much to answer for right now." Lazarus said after taking a glance at Alex's face.

Theta looked a little disappointed. Alex breathed a sigh of relief.

"I think I should be headed off to bed, we're going to be leaving before you know it." Alex said while strutting across the room.

"And I think you need some sleep to Kursed, you fought hard today." Lazarus said getting up from his seat. Kursed opened her mouth to argue, instead it was a deep yawn. If she was too tired to argue, then she was definitely too tired. Kursed struggled to her feet, but was able to leave the room without much trouble.

Theta sat alone on the couch, the ship was peaceful and calm. Yet, she felt restless. Finally, she left and went to her room. There she unpacked most of her stuff, amongst the scattered uniforms, stood a small faded photograph. It was a picture of a young man, standing majestically with his Venomian uniform on. Theta picked it up. "Tom, why'd you have to do it, everything you lived for died because of it." She with anger to the photograph. Tears welled in her eyes as Theta held the picture to her chest. She crawled onto the bed and silently cried herself to sleep.

* * *

_The storm was raging outside, Daren vigirously hurled himself through the rain. Aimlessly running in so many directions as lightning struck the ground. But no matter how hard he ran, the figures still caught up with him. _

"_Kid, I want my money, you still owe me." The apparent leader said pulling out his switch blade. _

"_I don't owe anything Carlisle, nothing." Daren said crying as he fought harder against the rain. _

"_Yes you do Harvey, 300 creds, for protection." Carlisle snarled. _

"_Protection!? From what?" Daren said shaking his head. _

"_So bad things don't happen, like this." Carlisle threw the switch blade with expert precision, embedding it self into Darens thigh_

_Daren cried out in pain as he fell to the ground. Carlisle and his goons slowly advanced, like tigers closing in on prey. All Daren could do was watch in terror, it really wasn't true about death. You couldn't see your life flash before your eyes. All he could see was bright yellow eyes in the thick down pour. Then, by some miracle, Carlilse stopped. The yellow dots were focused on something else. Within seconds, Carlisle went down. Something had pounced on him. His minions tried to help, but they were thrown aside. _

"_Leave'm alone Carlisle." Daren's saviour shouted through gritted teeth. _

"_Alright Sorense, you win, but don't let your guard down yet if you know what I mean." Carlisle muttered. The shadow that was Carlisle picked himself up and ran away. Daren felt something hoist him up. After being dragged across the pavement for a short while, the thick storm disappeared instantly, but he could still hear rainfall. It took Daren a second, but he realized that he was in a car. He opened his eyes to see one of his school mates, Jack Sorense, pulling out the knife in his thigh. The sharp pain lasted only for a second as Jack tore off a piece of his shirt to patch up the wound. _

"_Hey, Daren, right? Where do you live?" Jack said. _

"_Liberty apartments, 209." Daren said. _

_Jack ran to the driver seat and started up his car. _

"_Hey Sorense." Daren called out. _

"_Yeah?" Jack responded. _

"_Thanks." Daren said, Jack nodded his head drove to Daren's apartment complex _

* * *

**_A/N Okay, I'm very sorry about this update taking forever, but my computer got a virus. which took forever to fix, if you ever come across the program "Anti-virus 1" it's actually a virus itself. Whatever you do, don't touch it, see you next chapter. _**


	10. Mission 1 pt 1: Lost

**Disclaimer: Nintendo owns most of this stuff, so yeah, enjoy**

The "night" in the ship quickly passed on. Perhaps not quick enough for Falco Lombardi. He barely slept, constantly thinking about his two injured teammates. Everything in his life always tried to tear itself away from him. First when he was ten, his mother died of cancer. His dad had forced him to join the "Family business" to put food on the table. Then Krystal and Fox…dead one after the other. Now this, the only things he has left in the world, his two best friends. Are somewhere in between life and death. When the shrill alarm clock sounded Falco's nerves nearly got the best of him. He pounced out of bed and dashed to Katt's room, he gingerly opened the door and slid in. Falco kneeled down next to her bed to get a better look at her.

"She's going to be okay you know." Lazarus said from the doorway.

'What the… What are you doing here?" Falco said surprised.

"I saw the door was slightly ajar, and thought that Katt finally woke up, she's supposed to get up today." Lazarus answered.

"How do you know?" Said Falco, unable to mask the undeniable hope in his voice.

"Trust me Lombardi, when you've fought in wars far more terrible than you can imagine, it becomes second nature to tell how thin the bond between life and body is." Lazarus smiled and then walked away.

Falco looked back at Katt and stood up. _That old coot better be right_, Falco thought to himself before leaving the room.

Iota was making his way to Kursed's room. Odd enough he had a few questions to ask her, hopefully he could get answers. But before he could even touch the door.

"What do you want?" Kursed shouted from her room, obviously annoyed.

"It's me, I have something to ask you, it's kind of important." He said.

The door creaked open, there Kursed was in a bathrobe

"Yes." Kursed said with mock flourish.

"Look, I have something to ask you concerning Cerinian foxes." Iota asked slightly embarrassed.

At that, Kursed's mocking expression faded.

"Hold on a minute." She said shutting the door. After a short while Kursed opened "Okay, come in."

Iota stepped into the room to find Kursed, dressed in casual tee-shirt and jeans.

"What is it?" Kursed asked.

"Is it possible that you know, about, more of your kind…" Iota choked out.

"More Cerinians? I'm sorry, I'm the only one that I know of." Kursed said sadly, something about her voice was different.

Iota looked gave her strange look,

"Okay, sorry to bother you." Iota said turning away, and then he felt it.

The strange feeling of small hands caressing the inside of his head, it only happened in the blink of an eye. But if you were trained, then you knew that someone was trying to read your mind.

"Stay out of my head, my problems don't concern you." Iota said as he walked out of the door.

Kursed was shocked, _How the hell does he know?_, she thought.

Peppy walked to the hangar and began to warm up his arwing.

"Leaving so soon, old friend." A voice called out.

Peppy turned around and saw Lazarus looking back at him.

"You know, it's funny, since the first time we met, you've always know where I was going and what I was doing." Peppy said with a chuckle.

"I just wanted to bid you farewell, I haven't seen you in at least 20 years and you never know if we're going to live to meet again." Lazarus said with a wave.

"You also had a tendency to make my flights just that much more terrifying." Peppy said as the arwing's engines emitted the slight hum. "Sorry I have to go on such short notice, Lazarus, duty calls" Peppy said as the ship blast off.

"I guess that goes for me too." Said Lazarus to the empty hangar in front of him, and with that he went back to the living area.

The nothing of space was foreboding, so much more chilling than the deepest caves or the darkest nights. Yet, the planets and the stars, aligned in such a way gave it some sort of art that only mother nature could provide. To Wolf O'Donnel, and only Wolf O'Donnel, did it mean home. Even the constant arguing amongst his teammates or the presence of Bowman's disturbed new ally couldn't steal the wonder. Things were interrupted however, when they came close to a large ship, with the words _Sky Atlantis_ painted in the side. Wolf swore he could've heard Bowman's pet hiss.

Alex couldn't shake away the wraith, it constantly followed him. The strange creature that was too real to be in his head had suddenly attacked him and became an ever present burden. It constantly questioned him about why he wouldn't accept evolution, and Alex would always answer, "because he didn't want to become a heartless monster." Yet the creature didn't take no so easily. It raised it's clawed right hand, always trying to puncture Alex's flesh, inject him with that strange mutagen. But like the strange child had warned him, as long as he was conscious, the wraith couldn't do anything. Desperately looking for something to distract him, he searched all over the ship to pass time before the mission started. As he passed Lucy's room, he could hear something stir.

Lucy struggled up in her bed. Her chest felt hollow and her limbs stiff and sore. Her door creaked open, letting in paiful rays of light.

"Hello?" Lucy managed to say.

"It's just me Lucy, glad to see your awake." Alex said.

"What's going one, why are you here." Lucy snapped to attention.

"Calm down, I heard you outside while I was looking for something to do before the mission." Alex responded, slowly and carefully choosing his words.

"Mission!" Lucy shouted struggling to leave her bed, she made it half way across the room before collapsing in exhaustion.

"Careful, you don't want to hurt yourself anymore then you already are." Alex said helping her up.

Lucy shoved off Alex's hand and forced herself out of the door.

"Why are all these girls like this?" Alex said shaking his head. He felt the presence of the wraith form behind him, once again, Alex needed to find something else to do.

"Alright team, remember our mission, Jack's somewhere on that island, I've taken the liberty of uploading his nearest coordinates." Lazarus said to everyone standing in the hangar. "With the best of luck, lets move out." He finished as everyone, loaded up into their machines.

"Is something wrong Alex?" Kursed asked as he stepped by her.

"Nothing's wrong." Alex said, with a false smile, his eyes are what gave him away.

Kursed rolled her eyes and tried to sneak into Alex's mind. To her surprise, something appeared next to Alex. It turned to face her and flashed a horrible, toothy grin. In a split second, it had pinned her to the ground and forced her out of Alex's mind. Everyone turned to look at her, confused at what just happened. Instantly Kursed stood back up and jumped into her arwing trying to shake the feeling of sheer helplessness she had earlier. The engines hummed and everyone took off one by one, the arwings automatically guiding them to the surface of Fortuna.

Slippy presented himself on the arwing's window,

"Hi guys, since my job has basically been destroyed, Peppy assigned me to be your main link back to the _Atlantis_. Before leaving, Peppy also told me that Jack's location is somewhere near the Cornerian ruins located southward of your landing point, so try and locate the ruins, Slippy out." Slippy's face disappeared from the screen as the arwings took their pre-routed map to the surface of Fortuna. Unknowing that Team Starwolf was hiding in their shadow, stalking their every move.

The arwings quickly cut through the atmosphere and landed them in a clearing. Alex jumped out of the arwing and was welcomed by a sudden burst of hot and humid air. Strange bird calls could be heard across the thick jungles that coated Fortuna's surface.

"What are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road." Lucy said enthusiastically, Alex wondered how Falco let her on the trip with her injury, but she was part of _his_team after all. Kursed thought differently however, thinking it was dangerous for Lucy, who knows what else might be looking for Jack. She kept these thoughts to herself, knowing she was injured herself.

"Wait, I've got to set the compass to this planet's gravitational pull." Theta said pulling out a small disc. The small screen flashed on and Theta quickly pressed a few buttons. After about a minute or so, a noisy click sounded off and the needles pointing at the edge of the disc began to turn. "Alright now lets get going." Theta finished walking in the other direction.

Leon paced around anxiously.

"What are they doing, why haven't left yet." He shouted

"They're setting the compass." Panther Caroso said cooly.

"Why can't we just go and force them into showing us? That makes much more sense…" Leon said.

Alex took out a pair of binoculars and focused on an individual.

"That guys one reason, he's my brother, I've fought him once, and I've seen him fight others many times, if you're not careful, he could easily rip you to shreds." Alex shifted the binoculars on Lazarus's team. "These are some of the most skilled fighters in the galaxy, Team Lazarus, these guys are no joke. I've seen the fox in action, his prey never escapes, he provides his opponents no mercy." Alex said.

Alex focused on Kursed and her team, "That blue vixen right there is Cerenian, and Cererinians have the ability to…" Alex began.

"To read minds, yes we've encountered one just like her." Caroso said with lust.

"The bird is a skilled marksmen, Bowman sent me to track, when I saw him on the run from Carlisle's mafia, most of the guys he brought lost their heads to his blaster." Alex said.

"And you all know about Star Falco…" Alex finished, no one said anything.

"If you want action Leon, I suggest paying more attention." Wolf mocked.

Leon swiveled around and saw the targets walking, in the opposite direction.

Alex could barely see through the dense cloud of biting flies in front of him. Something in his blood attracted them, and ironically, killed them. Alex watched as the cloud slowly dissipated. The journey was going very hard on Lucy's wound, Falco propped her up most of the time. The ground started sloping upwards as they proceeded. The sight at the top of the hill was chilling.

Iota looked around with mixed feelings, when he was McCloud, he had been here at one point at the Oinkonny wars. Everything here was basically left to rust and rot, a symbol of disgrace from Oinkonny. Little did Fox know at the time, that it was only the tip of the iceberg. Oinkonny's little rebellion was only a prelude to the Aparoid invasion. The damned bugs devoured everything in their path. Not only flesh, but memories and feelings. Iota could remember the sheer anger when he found that they tried to use his own father against him. It was odd how these painful memories that he sought to evade, always found a way back in. Iota turned in Kursed's direction, he could see her looking around nervously. He had to be careful around the Cerenian, how much she could learn about him in a split second.

Alex stalked the large group on all fours, his movement was virtually undectable. He was glad to be away from those idiots that dared called themselves mercenaries. Why Bowman chose them as his partners, he still had no idea. Sure they had helped his grandfather awhile back, but look at what happened to him. Alex stopped, his brother's ears perked up, this could make it or break it for him.

"Guys, someones following us…" He said.

"Is it a supramorph?" Theta asked worried.

"I don't know, it smells like one, but it's different." Alex answered.

Alex started walking again clenching his blaster tight. The stalker in the bushes let out a breath of releif, his mistake. Alex pivoted around and shot his brother. Yelping in surprise, Alex2 jumped out of the bushes. The rest of Alex's team fired at the new target, proving to be totally useless.

"Run, I'll take care of him, just find Jack." Alex shouted, charging at his opponent.

He didn't need to tell them twice, his team had disappeared instantly. Leaving Alex and his brother alone.

"What do you want?" Alex snarled.

"You know what I want brother, our disgraceful "father." You're just getting in my way." His brother snarled back.

"Brother? Father?" Alex said shaking his head.

"Ha, you don't know? We are one in the same. I'm like you, I can think for myself, as for father, you know him better as Jack." Alex2 smiled.

"So what are you doing with Bowman? He's just using you!" Alex shouted.

"On the contrary, I'm using him, he has no idea that he's using his brain to build _my_army. The idiot has no idea." Alex2 laughed. "But enough of this, I can see your not going to let me see him, I guess that gives me an excuse to break some of the rules." Alex got a look at what happens to him when he "changes" The creature in front of him instantly began morphing, razor sharp claws sliding out of his hand, it's fur changing to thick body armor. Blood lust filled it's eyes, the fight was on. Alex began changing into his attack form, but his brother was already leaping towards him. Alex finished just in time to thrust his claws into his brother's chest. Alex jumped forward and slammed him into the ground. The creature that was his brother kicked Alex off of him and lashed out with it's claws, sinking into Alex's chest. Shrugging off the pain, Alex delivered a swift round house kick. Alex2 blocked the attack to his head. Alex jumped up and used his other leg to strike. The suprising blow didn't fool his brother, he caught Alex's foot and slammed him into a near by tree. The tree collapsed as Alex jumped back up and pounced onto his brother. Now on the ground, Alex stabbed his brother in the Adam's apple. The claws easily penetrated the flesh, but that didn't stop his brother. Now pinned to the ground by the jugular, he delivered a swift kick to Alex's groin. The sudden burst of pain sent Alex keeling over. The brother tried to take the advantage, but Alex jumped up and punched him in the sternum. Helplessly stunned, Alex grabbed Alex2's head and violently smashed it into his knee a few times, breaking his nose. The brother now disoriented could feel the healing process already take place. Alex took this chance to hit his brother as hard as he could. The sounds of bones breaking could be heard across the forest. Powerful punches to the kidneys broke his ribs, along with rupturing organs. Alex grabbed his brother by the shoulders and kicked his knee, with a snap it bent to an awkward position. Alex2 fell to the ground in an instant, now immobilized. Alex lifted his his foot up and brought it down like a powerful sledgehammer onto his brother's neck. A large crunch, and his brother was choking on his own blood as he lay paralyzed. Alex looked down as the struggling creature coughed one last time before falling unconscious. Alex had to act quickly, in ten minutes, the body would look like nothing had happened at all. Grabbing his brother by the legs. He threw him into the sky as hard as he could, sending the body flying. The fight was over, for now. _Talk about brotherly love,_ Alex thought to himself

Lucy cursed as she tripped over unseen vines and sprained her ankle. In the mad rush to get away from the supramorph, she had been separated. Now lost, hurt, and alone, she had no where to hide, she was a sitting duck for the supramorph, or the dangerous jungle animals that lived here. No one has ever dared go into the jungles of Fortuna alone, like the Cornereian sharks, the Lylat had made a treaty with strange jungle creatures on Fortuna, and the demands were the same. Lucy hobbled over to a tree and sat down on it's roots. She needed to get her bearings straight. She pulled out her communicator now that she was no longer running away and tried to contact another one of the group. To her surprise, someone was trying to contact her. She set the frequency and tuned in to the new person.

"Hello? Who's there?" The voice on the other end said.

"That's the question I should be asking you." Lucy said.

"Me? That depends, people call me a lot of things. Some call me brilliant, others call me a waste of space." The voice on the other end answered

"I really can't say anything about someone I haven't met." Lucy said confused.

The voice on the other line went dead, but it's transmission was still going out. Lucy decided to call Slippy, in hopes of tracing the source of the transmission.

"Hey Lucy, what's up?" Slippy asked in his usual tone.

"I need you to trace a call, he was on the other line a second ago." Lucy said.

"Alright, hold on." Slippy said as he clacked away on a keyboard. "It looks like you've found our guy, Jack Sorense is on the other line. I'd better contact the others." Slippy said as he signed out. Lucy tuned back into Jack's frequency.

"Hello?" Lucy said sheepishly.

"You again, well what do you want?" Jack sounded impatient.

"The Cornerian government sent us to find you, or my father did at least, we really need your help Mr. Sorense." Lucy asked, her voice no more than a whisper.

Once again, silence.

"Step a little to the right please." Jack said camly.

Lucy stood up and limped over. To her surprise, the stump she was sitting on rose up to reveal a hollow tube. Inside the tube, was a young man, no older than herself.

"Please, come here, we need to stay out of the open, they're coming." Jack said helping Lucy into the strange elevator. It quickly pulled her underground into the silo.

"Okay, let me ask you my questions first, one, who's we?" Jack said calmly.

"My team and I, my fath-The General, sent us on a mission to find you." Lucy answered.

"Second, why do you need _my_ help?" He asked.

"Because of your _creations_, the supramorphs." Lucy struggled, she didn't know how Jack would react. Jack just clenched his eyes shut.

"Them? I want nothing to do with them." Jack yelled. Lucy had obviously pinched a nerve.

"Please, we need you, there's nothing that we know of that can kill them!" Lucy shouted back.

"That's the point! I created them to be the ultimate protectors, they never sleep, they never stop, in fact they can't be stopped." Jack said.

"There's got to be something, you just have to think." Lucy said.

"No really, you believe I've spent half of my adult life in hiding without trying redeem myself?" The sacarsm in Jack's voice stung. "Everyday I hear that Bowman used my creations to mercilessly murder anyone who gets in his way. Using them as weapons of mass destruction. You think after all of that, I haven't been trying to think up a way of getting rid of them?"

"Okay then, what have you thought up?" Lucy said. Jack froze. "Well?"

"Plasma, pure plasma. It would totally eradicate them, melt them down straight back to raw elements." Jack finally spoke.

"Then why don't our blasters work?" Lucy said pointing out a flaw.

"It's not on a large scale, it doesn't totally immerse them in plasma, and it burns out way to fast. The amount you would need has to be bigger than them, and a constant source." Jack explained.

"So a star? We'd need to throw them, into a star." Lucy said.

"Yep, and frankly, I don't think you can hold one down long enough to do that." Jack answered.

Both of them were quiet, Lucy had only met the guy for a few minutes, and she was already on his bad side. They both jumped, when they heard the sound of grinding metal coming from the entrance.

Epsilon came to a halt once he felt safe, the only thing he heard was the pounding of his heart. In the mad dash to get away from the supramoprh, he to had been separated. He had never been so terrified in his life. His cool mannerisms didn't show it, but after the battle with the supramorphs back on Corneria, he had seen it all. All the soldiers crying for help, so much blood. Epsilon was going crazy just thinking about all of those people left behind, with those monsters! The sound of a voice shook him from his thoughts as footsteps trailed behind his position. _More of them?_He thought in terror. Quickly he collapsed on the ground and hid below the under brush. One lone figure stepped right in front of his face. To his relief, it wasn't a supramorph. Whoever it was, was also lost, or looked it. It was muttering to itself about maps and "that damn Leon." Epsilon examined the figure closely, it was pretty boy Panther Coroso. He steadied his nerves and rose from the bushes, not making a single sound. In one swift movement, Epsilon grabbed Panther, disarmed him, and pulled his own gun to the Panther's head. The surprised creature tried to let out a squeal, but Epsilon's hand grasped tightly around his wind pipe, so only a muffled cough made it out.

"Okay, I'm only going to ask you once, what are you doing here?" Epsilon whispered cooly.

"I'm not telling you, you think I'd spill my guts to some-" Epsilon cut off Panther with a mini shock stick, the painful jolt of electricity shut Panther up immediately.

"Now will you tell me?" Epsilon whispered not at all changing his tone.

"Alright, alright…" Panther said in between fast breaths. "And take that damn thing away from me."

Epsilon slowly pulled away the stick away from his side, Panther calmed down slightly. Then, Panther tested his luck and tried to head butt Epsilon. With no mercy, Epsilon clenched Panther's wind pipe and held it there for a short time. For 4 agonizing seconds Panther struggled, until finally collapsing in Epsilon's arms. _Not to smart is he?_ Epsilon laughed to himself as he pulled out a coil and tied Panther up and suspended him from a tree. Pleased with his work, Epsilon left the site. He started off when his communicator went off.

"Hey Epsilon, we've found Jack!" Slippy said as fast as he appeared on screen.

"Where's his location." Epsilon asked.

"I'll pin point the spot on your map, good luck, Slippy out." Slippy's face disappeared from the screen and Epsilon pulled up the map.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, the team is now seperated, we'll take a look at what's happened to the rest of the team, next chapter.


	11. Mission 1 Pt 2: Bonding

Disclaimer: I do not, probably never will, own Star Fox, or Nintendo

Warm air carressed Fox's face. He awoke with a start, his eyes were greeted by a clear blue sky at the ancient Thorntail hollow. "What am I doing here?" He said out loud. His voice echoed, there was not another living thing in sight. Slightly disturbed, Fox began to nervously walk around. Hopefully he could find a friendly face. Time didn't seem to move at all here, the sun stayed in it's same position as Fox walked around. He had explored all of the familiar places in the Hollow, but every where else was just the same, quiet and empty. Finally, he noticed something moving in the river. He ran over to check it out. A cloud of bubbles surrounded an object in the water, he reached down to grab what ever it was. To his surprise, the water was ice cold. Regardless of the frigid water, he still pushed his hand forward. The water went deeper and deeper, it seemed to have no end. Then all of a sudden, an unknown force shoved him forward. Sending him directly into the icy water.

Fox tried to swim upwards, but it was as if heavy weights were pulling him down. He finally touched the bottom coming face to face with another figure. He squinted in the dark water, it was Krystal. She was standing with sad eyes, her arms reaching out to grab him. Fox was even more confused as she slowly brought her lips to his. Light slowly began to fill the murky water, but it was no longer Thorntail Hollow. Fox was now looking at Kursed.

Kursed looked down at Iota, his glazed eyes slowly opened. Iota jumped out of her arms and ran to a tree.

"What happened?" Iota choked.

"You were poisoned, Supramorphs aren't the only thing on the planet." Kursed said walking towards him.

"Poisoned? By what?" Iota asked as he wiped his mouth.

"Star Wolf, now come on, we need to get out of here, they're still on our tail." Kursed grabbed Iota by the arm and hoisted him up. She began to run in the opposite direction, Iota followed. It was hard to keep up with her in the dense foilage, thick leaves and branches pounded Iota as he ran. He kept running until he was pulled to the ground, he looked around and was relieved to find it was Kursed. She held her finger to her mouth and pointed to her right. Iota slowly turned his head and saw leaves shaking, Star Wolf was coming near them. He stopped breathing as Wolf O'donnel poked his head out of the foliage.

"Damn, we lost them." He said.

"They're fast little foxes aren't they?" Leon hissed.

"They can't have gone too far, the foliage is way too thick." Wolf whispered.

"Tell me something I don't know." Leon said rolling his eyes.

"Watch your mouth, you're already in hot water as is, things would've gone so much easier if you hadn't spooked them." Wolf snapped.

"Well it looks like you need to improve your little drug, you hit one of 'em and they still got away." Leon snapped back. Wolf just exhaled.

"What happened to Panther?" Wolf said with realization.

"We "lost" him somewhere in the middle of the chase." Leon on said with a smirk.

"Then it looks like you've got a new chore, I'll look for the foxes, and you go find Panther." Wolf ordered, Leon ran in the opposite direction as Wolf dragged on. Iota and Kursed didn't move until both were out of sight. At last, the only thing they could hear were the bugs chirping.

"That was too close." Kursed said standing up, but only to a crouch.

"Do you mind telling me why we're both soaking wet?" Iota stood up slowly, he still felt dazed.

"I'll explain later, we need to find shelter, night's coming quick." Kursed whispered. Iota looked up, sure enough, the planet's sol was gently touching the horizon.

* * *

_Cold and hungry, how do you always end up like this on missions?_Falco thought to himself. He stood alone, the attack from Star Wolf had surprised them all. They all split in different directions, even though some of the other team members were missing after the first chase. Time was running out for him however, the day wasn't too bad, but the cold night was already setting in. With nothing but some shorts and a flight vest on, things would start to get uncomfortable. He pulled out his communicator and tried to contact Slippy.

"Hello?" Slippy yawned.

"Hey Froggy it's me Falco." Falco replied.

"Oh, what do you need?" Slippy said, snapping out of his sleep.

"I need to know the location of the others, I'm kind of stuck out here alone." Falco asked.

"Okay, well, Epsilon is at the ruins, Theta and Lazarus are at the landing site, Lucy is at Jack's location, Clark is also at the ruins…" Slippy answered.

"Lucy found Jack?" Falco said surprised.

"Yeah, she stumbled upon his communicator frequency." Slippy said.

_Nice job Lucy_, Falco thought smiling to himself.

"So what about the others?" Falco asked.

"Alex, Iota, and Kursed are all missing, their communicators have been disabled, as in completely totalled." Slippy responded, troubled.

"You mean to tell me that three of our teammates are lost out there?" Falco asked.

"I mean to tell you that they are by themselves and we can't communicate, I doubt they're lost. Alex can take care of himself for sure, and Iota and Kursed are bounty hunters, they've probably been in worse conditions." Slippy said.

"Okay, well, point me in the direction of the ruins." Falco asked.

"Just due south on the compass, is that all?" Slippy replied.

"Yep, Falco out."

"Slippy out."

Falco ran southwards, a little angry at his teammate. _Slippy can really grind on my nerves, sure Alex can take care of himself, but Iota and Kursed couldn't take on a Supramorph by themselves, that would be suicide. I don't care what Slippy says, bounty hunters aren't prepared to take those creatures on, I don't think they ever will. _Falco thought to himself as he ran into the night.

Night in the woods was pitch black, fortunately he had a flashlight, albeit it was the size of a pen.

"Look's like my luck's changing." Falco said sarcastically as he ran to the ruins.

He trudged on in the dark, the small light only provided minimal coverage of the area around him. Eventually sound of leaves crunching had changed to the _Clanking _noise you hear when you run on metal, he made it. Now all he needed to do was to find Clarke and Epsilon.

"Hello? Where are you guys?" Falco shouted out, his echoes were the only response. Slightly annoyed, he pressed onward down the dark cooridor that would eventually take him underground. Paranoia began to set in as he walked on, his tiny flash light didn't help any. Most of the time he tried to convince himself that nothing was stalking him in the hallway, that it was just him.

He was convinced otherwise when he heard a loud screech, a trail of sparks ignited just a few feet behind him. It took him a moment, but something was underneath him running something sharp against the metal floor. He knew there was still a supramorph somewhere around here on the planet, and he didn't want to wait and find out what this was. In a blind dash, Falco ran through the pitch black facility. The sparks moved even faster now, he could hear the loud screech under the metal floors growing louder. Slowly, the sparks began to close in on him, they were so close that he could feel the heat. With no other choice, Falco pulled out his blaster and shot at the sparks. One final screech, and to his relief, the sparks stopped. Just behind the sparks, was a huge gaping gash along the floor. He was itching to investigate, but curiosity killed the cat.

"But I'm not a cat." Falco said to himself.

Falco inched closer to the hole with his flash light and blaster aimed at the opening. Time moved slower as he got closer and closer. Finally he reached the opening and inside was a large dead worm like creature.

"What the hell?" Falco whispered out loud.

The creature began to move again, it was only stunned. It seemed to look at Falco with it's eyeless head. It's mouth opened up to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth. Falco shot it so many times, the gun overheated. All that was left was a bloody mess and teeth…

* * *

Jack grabbed Lucy and pulled her deeper into the bunker. The sound of grinding metal was earsplitting as something ripped the elevator upwards. Sparks and smoke flew everywhere as the elevator left. In its place, a large creature jumped in. It looked around and studied the damage. Jack and Lucy lay still and watched it bury its head into its hand.

"Sorry for the scare Lucy, I got a little excited." The figure called in their direction.

"Alex!" Lucy said running towards him.

"Alex?" Jack asked in confusion.

"Man am I glad to see you, I've been walking in the woods for hours now." Alex said.

"Why not just use your communicator?" Lucy asked.

"It was smashed during my scuffle with the other supramorph." Alex replied.

Jack slowly walked towards Alex and studied him.

"It's you! I can't believe it, it actually worked." Jack shouted in jubilation.

"What worked, wait, you're Jack!" Alex said realization, how could he have been so stupid.

"I still can't believe it, you're alive, the serum worked." Jack said laughing.

"This guy has to bipolar, he was pretty mad when I found him." Lucy whispered to Alex.

"No I'm not bipolar, it's just that I think we have a way to get rid of them." Jack smiled for the first time in months.

"What are we looking for exactly?" Iota asked.

"A safe house, there's at least one on every planet on the map, in fact I was just here a month ago." Kursed answered.

It was already pitch black and they had no means of light. They had to navigate on their senses alone to pull them through the jungle. Luckily for Kursed, years of intensive training has given her the edge in mind powers. They operated almost like a sixth sense, in the dark there was thousand of auras emmitting from the living things of the jungle. She would find the safe house in no time. Iota stood close to Kursed, he felt like a little kid at the mall. Having to hold her hand while she guided them through the woods. Finally she stopped, she bent down pulled up a few latches. Sensors inside the safe house detected them immediately and lights flashed on. The sudden burst of light blinded Iota for a second.

"Come on, what are you waiting for." Kursed said pulling Iota into the safe house.

"Finally, I can see my hands." Iota said sarcastically.

Kursed ignored him and pulled the trap door down, quickly locking it shut.

"Now what?" Iota asked.

"Well our communicators are fried and we're lost, we'll have to find our way around when day comes, for now I suggest we wait." Kursed responed.

"Okay, while we wait, tell me what happened before, it's all a blur." Iota replied.

"Right, here's what happened. After we finished running from the supramorph, we tried to get a head count. Falco spotted something moving in the trees. It was Leon aiming a gun at his head. When Falco screamed to warn us, you were hit with a dart full of a poison called Solite, it…"

"Causes you to see your happy moments while slowly shutting down your brain, yeah I know." Iota interrupted.

"Anyway, I pounced on you and threw you into the water so that we could no longer be seen and then countered the poison with an antidote." Kursed continued.

"So how did you know to have an antidote?" Iota asked.

"I sensed the poison following us in the ship, so I created some the night before we left." Kursed asked.

"And the rest is history." Iota finished.

"Exactly." Kursed nodded.

Kursed got up and started taking off her heavy gear until she was left only in her violet-blue jump suit.

"I think we should rest while we can, when that sol comes back up, we have to get back on the move." Kursed said as she piled up her gear.

"No need to tell me twice." Iota said as he slid off the black jacket of his uniform, leaving him in a black under shirt. He threw the jacket to the side, as he did so, a pair of sunglasses fell out. Iota froze.

"What are those?" Kursed asked.

"Nothing." He said quickly as he picked them up, gently cradling them.

"Well it looks like something." Kursed said annoyed, she definitely didn't believe in personal space.

"Just a pair of sunglasses, nothing big." Iota replied as he held them in his hands like a bomb, how could he have brought them?

"Just a pair of sunglasses?" Kursed repeated.

"Why do you want to know so bad?" Iota said coldly.

"I want to know if I can trust you." Kursed replied.

"Okay then, lets make a deal, you tell me something personal about yourself, and then I explain the sunglasses." Iota said.

"Well what is there to tell about me? I guess I could say I became a bounty hunter after something tragic happened." Kursed answered.

"Details." Was all Iota said.

"I was young and hopeful. Love was on my mind, and the man I loved, I thought we could last forever. The bonds felt unbreakable. The first time I layed eyes on him, he had been my saviour, he had been my night in shining armour. Everyday we knew we loved eachother, I didn't need to read his mind to know that, but I wanted to settle down. For years I waited for him to kneel down and ask the big question, but it never came. Then things didn't end so well, he eventually wanted me to leave. So I did, then I met Clarke, he showed me another path, and here I am now." Kursed said bitterly. Iota stared saddened, it was hard not to feel sympathetic for the woman in front of him.

"Where to begin, where to begin." Iota said to himself, Kursed looked up, it was her turn to listen now.

"I never knew my mom, she was killed in a bombing incident during the first Andross wars, I was probably about three years old at the time, I can still remember her face. Anyway, the only parent I had was my good old dad, one of the most respected leaders in the Cornerian army. His troops looked up to him like I did, he seemed invincible, I bet you'd find this hard to believe, but he fought with the general in the first Andross war. He taught me so many things, he showed me the beauty that was left in the world. When I was thirteen, he taught me how to fly an arwing. I could never go by myself because I was a minor, but he gave me a head start in driving lessons. Then a year later, things went bad. My dad was captured on a mission to kill Andross once and for all, he and the general had been betrayed by a former friend. I heard terrible stories about what happened there, totures that hurt me just thinking about it." Iota paused for a moment, Kursed was still listening intently.

"Things went from worse to worst when a video of my dad had been sent to General Pepper, who was general at the time. I couldn't bear to watch it, this "video", it was like a crude snuff film, I'll just say my dad was a bloody pulp when he left the room. Pepper gave me news that dad shortly died after the session. But my dad didn't leave without taking some with him. In his last moments alive, he smuggled a sharpened stone to his friend and gave him his pair of sunglasses and told him that one of his last wishes was for me to have them. I heard that more than twenty of those guards died from having their jugulars slit by a crude object. I guess you can tell the friend made it back and fulfilled my fathers last wish." Iota said on the verge of tears.

Here he was sharing his most personal story with a woman he has never met. But they somehow understood each other. They've both had their hearts broken, they've both lost some one dear. Fox felt very strange, friend or teammate really didn't describe his relationship with Kursed. She was something else, like a puzzle piece finding it's counter part.

"I think we should get some sleep." Iota finally said. Kursed just nodded and lay down on her cot. Iota shut off the light and lay down. Slowly, he let the darkness over take him as he drifted off into sleep. That night, he dreamed about his father and mother.

* * *

Alex lay still on the small couch in the bunker, he, Jack, and Lucy decided to rest here for the night, the next day they would hopefully find the others.

"Can't…escape…" Choked a raspy voice. Alex turned over, he was face to face with the wraith.

"What do you want!?" Alex shouted.

"To…help…you" It coughed.

"Yeah right." Alex said sarcastically.

"Of…course…I…do…" The creature slowly held up it's arm, the claws shot out like switch blades.

Alex tried not to let himself sleep, but now he felt extremely tired.

"Can't…escape…"It repeated. Alex couldn't hold on any longer, he gave in to the creature's power. It stabbed Alex in the chest with it's long claws, the same powerful burning sensation returned. Alex could only see red as his head felt like it was about to explode. It felt like his brain was trying to wrench its way out of his head. Alex couldn't scream, he couldn't move, he could only shut his eyes as a lifetime of pain surged through him. Years seemed to pass before the red began to clear, and now the sun was up.

Alex jumped up, he didn't know if he had gotten any sleep or not, he could only remember the constant pain. He looked around and at himself, everything was okay, on the outside at least. When he closed his eyes, he could see a million different colored lights, it was as if he never closd his eyes at all. Alex looked around the room with the new perspective. Jack and Lucy stood out from the other lights completely, they had very complicated shapes that shined with a unique color. He opened his eyes again, what else had happened to his head? He'd have to answer these questions later, the sun was up, and Jack and Lucy were still asleep.

* * *

"Falco, wake up!" A voice screamed.

"What is it." Falco yawned.

"We're under attack Falco, Come on!" The voice was Clarke's, they had found each other in the ruins last night.

Falco didn't budge, until he heard the same ear splitting screech from last night. He was up in half a second. Huge fountains of sparks floated along the walls, aiming straight towards Falco and Clarke.

"Shoot'em Clarke." Falco yelled.

It didn't take long for Clarke to obey, he shot at the fountains of sparks, but they didn't stop, in fact they moved faster. And so did Falco and Clarke, they were at full speed going down the hallway. The sparks were still very close behind, if one of them were to stop, they would be dead in seconds. Knowing they were literally running from death, nothing stopped them. Falco looked on, there was the large gash down middle of the hallway from last night. But that meant they were close to getting out of the ruins. They split up and went across the two walls created by the worm. As they ran on, they could hear even more screeching. Falco could see the exit, they were almost out of the corridor.

Almost, but then the floor began to collapse around them. The large gash in the middle of the hall opened up even wider, Falco attempted to jump to safety as his section of floor crumbled away. He grabbed the ledge and held on for dear life, he needed to pull up, just needed to pull up. Falco heard Clarke's scream behind him, he didn't make it. With nothing holding him back, Falco tried to pull himself up, but one of the worms got him first, it latched onto his leg and pulled on him. Dragging him into the abyss, Falco used his last bit of sanity to shoot the hellish creature, which let go on the spot./

And there he fell, straight down to hell it seemed. Falco was sprawled on the ground, how far he fell and for how long he didn't know. What he did know is those worms wouldn't stop coming. Falco tried to lift himself up, but fell forward. Something was wrong with his left leg. He looked down, his fears were confirmed, the leg was gone, and in it's place was a bloody stump. With no time to lose, Falco took off his flight vest and tore it in half to patch up the wound. Fortunately, the vest stopped the bleeding. But he still had the problem with mobility. He got on his knee and crawled with his arms. Just up ahead, he could see a body. It was Clarke, who by some miracle was unharmed in his fall to the bottom.

"Clarke, wake up!" Falco shouted, no response. "Come on we have to go, I can't get you out of here by myself." Falco shook , Clarke began to stir.

"Falco!" Clarke said upon opening his eyes.

"Quick Clarke, we need to get out of here, at least this spot. Those worms probably have no trouble moving through soil.

"Worms?" Clarke said as he stood up.

"Yeah, those sparks are created when the worms rub their sharp teeth against the metal." Falco said, who still lay on the ground.

"What's wrong with you?" Clarke asked, Falco pointed to where his left leg would've been. When Clarke looked, he quickly turned away.

"One of the worms got me as I fell, I shot it off, but it took my leg with it." Falco explained.

Clarke bent over and hoisted Falco onto his shoulder, hopefully they didn't get caught like this.

"I'll try and contact the surface." Falco said as he opened his communicator.

"Hello?" Slippy's answered , his high pitch chirp muffled by static.

"Hey Slippy, we're in big danger, under the ruins is some sort of cavern with carnivorous worms. We are stuck here and I've lost my leg, please send help." Falco demanded urgently.

"Okay! I'll contact the others, your reception is really messed up, I can barely make you out on the map, try and stay in that general area, the farther underground you go, the worse the reception is, good luck, Slippy out."

"Stay in this general area! Is he insane." Clarke shouted.

"We might have no choice if we want the others to find us." Falco reluctantly replied.

* * *

Theta sat anxiously on her arwing, she didn't want to get attacked like the previous times. Each attack had surprised everyone, it was a miracle no one died. But there were still some people missing. Suddenly her communicator went off.

"Hey guys, it's Slippy, to all of you who can get this message, Falco, Clarke, and possibly Epsilon are trapped under the ruins. Hurry and get there, Falco has sustained a critical injury and I don't know how long they can last, Slippy out."

"Theta, come on." Lazarus said running into the woods. Theta followed.

* * *

Lucy put away her communicator.

"It looks like we have a change of plans." Alex said.

"Alright to the ruins." Lucy shouted.

The team trudged through on to the ruins. It wasn't a very long walk, Jack's bunker was only about a mile south from the ruins. They needed to hurry, Falco was in critical condition down there, but where is"there" exactly.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, I hope the story has been enjoyable so far. I noticed that I really haven't gotten that many reviews (I don't know what mess I'm getting my self into) so please, review.**


	12. Mission 1 Pt 3: Rescues

Disclaimer: Anything not Spencer belongs to Nintendo.

Theta could see the ruins just a few yards away from her. Ready for anything, she and Lazarus ran inside, only to be greeted by a huge pit in the entrance.

"I guess the only way is down." Theta said as she pulled out a coil of rope and proceeded to stake it into the ground. "Ladies first." She gestured to the hole.

Theta took hold of the rope and clipped it to the side of her suit. She quickly began to rappel into the dark abyss, Lazarus followed after her. The darkness gave Theta the strange feeling of floating, she couldn't see anything, but she could only feel the wall that was directly in front of her. Time didn't seem to pass at all as Theta descended lower and lower. Soon, she could feel her feet press into hard rock.

"Lazarus, I think I've hit the bottom." She shouted upwards.

"I'm right in front of you, you know." Said Lazarus, he was just a few feet away from Theta. "Get out a glow lanter and light it up, we need to find Falco and Clarke."

Theta heard the clicks of his belt while he pulled the rope off. She sifted around her pack searching for the cyndrilical object, thankfully she didn't have to dig for very long. She pulled one out and felt for the release pin on top. With a strong tug, the pin came loose and the chemicals within the lantern combined. In a few seconds, the lantern let off a huge light.

"Lets get going, they can't be too far from here." Said Lazarus. Theta began to walk forward, although the lantern lit the way, in a few hours the light would diminish, time was of the essence.

"What was that?" Whispered Theta , she could've sworn she heard foot steps.

"I don't know, but I heard it to. I suggest you draw your weapon." Lazarus responded.

Theta didn't need to ask twice, she pulled out her shock club and put her finger on the trigger. Cautiously, they proceeded, something was definently stalking them.

* * *

Iota woke first, Kursed was still sound asleep on her cot. He yawned and jumped out of the cot, as he stood up, something banged on the trap door. Cautiosly, he unlatched it and pushed it open. When he surfaced, he came face to face with six armed soldiers, all guns aimed at him.

"You are under arrest by order of Emperor Bowman, any resistance will be met with deadly force, are we clear." The head soldier barked at him.

"Clear." Iota said grabbing the soldier nearest to him, the rest fired mercilessly.

Iota held the soldier directly in front of him. He could feel the warm blood spray onto him as the soldiers shot their comrade. Iota grabbed the soldier's gun, and using the lifeless body as a shield, returned fire on the other soldiers. Most of them had taken cover, but he didn't miss the slowest ones. The green lights soared to their heads, two of the soldiers fell to the ground dead.

Iota jumped back into the safe house and immediately sealed the door. Kursed was already back into her gear and holding a spread gun.

"There's a weapon rack in the back, you might want to get suited up. I bet they have reinforcements on the way." She said to Iota, who was already back into his uniform.

He quickly made his way back, grabbing an assault machine gun off of the rack and loaded his pockets with ammo and grenades.

Kursed perked up her ears, she could hear rapid beeping. She grabbed Iota and pulled him farther back. A huge explosion blew off the trap door as bolts of energy filled the room. Iota threw a grenade into the smoke, an explosion followed by screams was heard.

Kursed could see the auras of the guards behind the smoke. She aimed her spread gun and fired at them, most of them died immediately.

"Iota, we need to get rid of this safe house, there should be a plasma charge behind the weapons rack. Set it to ten seconds, and arm it when I say." She shouted.

Iota ran to the rack and threw it aside, there lying under the rubble was a laptop sized box. He lifted it up and opened it up, inside was a timer and a large red button.

"Ready?" Kursed shouted.

"Yes." Iota replied.

"Alright…NOW!" She screamed after waiting for at least three agonizing seconds.

Iota punched the button and ran to the entrance with Kursed. He could hear soldiers shouting commands and guns firing, but he didn't care. Bullets were one thing, plasma explosions were something else. Iota tripped and fell to the ground and Kursed had no choice but to leave him. He didn't blame her, still he had to save his own skin. He got up and ran for what little time he had left. Iota ran harder than he ever had before, he estimated he only had two seconds before the bomb blew.

Iota's legs felt like they would fall off as a huge blue explosion erupted, it shook the ground so hard it sent Iota falling head first into the ground. The heat was so intense that the trees around Iota were burning up. He was swearing and sweating as he felt the fabric of his uniform begin to melt. Iota ripped out his father's sunglasses, tore the uniform off of him and then tried running farther. For an ungodly amount of time, the plasma continued to burn everything around it. The soldiers that hadn't been incinerated on contact began to morph into grotesque shapes. Their bodies slowy and painfully turning into a bubbling mess.

Finally, the blue explosion changed to white and began to shrink. Everything behind Iota was burnt away. The safe house was a crater, soldiers that hadn't made it as far as Iota were piles of bone and goop, while others had been partially burned, others had lost their limbs. Iota was lucky to escape, the last few yards ran saved him from serious injury.

"Kursed! Where are you?" He shouted.

"Over here! I'm over here!" She shouted back to him.

"Are you okay?" Iota said running to her.

"Am I okay? You were closer to the explosion, something could've happened to you, I can't believe I didn't come back and pick you up!" Kursed cried.

"Hey I'm fine, look I can walk, I can talk, and you're fine. You really don't need to worry about me like that" He said laughing, what happened to the Kursed back on Corneria?

"It's just that I can't let you die, I've just met you, and it seems like we've come from the same world." Kursed stressed.

"And let me guess, I complete you?" Iota said.

"No, you know my life, because you've lived it, I think that's what I mean." Kursed explained.

Iota was quiet for a minute, he was taking in everything. Kursed was turning out to be much more different than he expected. But this wasn't a bad thing.

"We can talk later, we need to find some way back to the ships." Iota finally said. Kursed nodded, this was for a different time.

* * *

Alex walked along the explostion site, around him were men moaning and crawling.

"What the hell happened here?" Jack said shaking his head.

"Some sort of explosion, a powerful one at that." Lucy answered.

"Yeah that's obvious. But everything around here is melted or melting, look at the guys on the ground." Jack said.

Alex looked down and could see that most of the guys were only torsos crawling to some lost destination. The ones who still had their legs were just limping forword in pursuit of no real objective. All of them were delusional, none of them seemed to take notice of the three people walking among their bodies. They really didn't know what to do, most of them were dead or dying. Everything was silent, the moans were the only things that could be heard.

"Wait a second, guys, I think I can see some one walking through, just over there." Alex said breaking the silence.

"Yeah, I think I see them too!" Lucy said running to them.

Alex literally disappeared when he went into super run, he reappeared over by a startled Kursed and Iota.

"Alex do you have to jump out of nowhere like that!?" Kursed shouted at him.

"Sorry, I saw you in the woods and I decided to check it out." Alex explained.

"Is it just you, or is there any others?" Iota asked.

"Yeah, Lucy, Jack, and I." Alex answered.

"Wait, you guys found Jack?" Kursed asked.

"Lucy found him, and even then she didn't really find him, he actually found her in a way." Alex replied.

"Where are they now?" Iota asked.

"Lucy's on her way, and Jack's over by the crater." Alex answered.

Sure enough, Lucy was huffing and puffing as she ran to them.

"Lucy!" Kursed shouted and ran over to her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, just my injury kind of makes it hard to breathe." Lucy coughed.

"Just rest for a moment, you really shouldn't press yourself so hard." Kursed said.

"You really sound like my dad right now." Lucy laughed.

Iota kept it to himself, but what was very surprising to him is that Kursed was showing her soft side to everyone around her.

"I'm sorry to break up such a touching reunion, but you're coming with me, it's your choice dead or alive." A new voice called to them.

Alex could could hear him just a few feet behind, and Iota and Kursed knew fully well that it was Leon Powalski.

"You think you can take on four armed and highly trained people with just a blaster Powalski?" Iota mocked.

"So you think you're smart, you don't look too armed to me." Leon laughed inching closer to Iota, his gun directly aimed at Iota's head. Right as Leon put the gun to Iota, Iota shifted his head out of the way and threw a punch at Leon's face. Leon grabbed the fist and threw Iota to the side. He aimed his blaster at him and fired, but Alex had already intervened. In less than a second, Alex popped in between Iota and the bullet. He absorbed the bullet without taking much harm at all. Alex grabbed the gun and snapped it in two, then delivered an uppercut, throwing Leon off balance. Leon now open to attack, was punched in the stomach by Alex. Leon flew back a few feet and curled up in pain, the wind had been knocked out of him.

"We better get Jack and get out of here." Alex said disappearing.

* * *

Alex could see Lazarus and Theta walking through the cave, it was only a matter of time before he would strike, not yet though.

"Lazarus look out!" Theta shouted, Alex thought that he had been found out again. To his relief she was pointing at something else.

They both shot at the "thing" but what ever it was didn't stop. Both of them were sprinting in the opposite direction, a living mound of dirt running them down. Lazarus stopped and whipped out his diamond blades and held them above his head. The mound of dirt went straight towards his legs, it was only inches away when Lazarus brought the blades crashing down into the ground. Lazarus wrenched it upwards and lifted the worm from the ground. The skewered creature writhed as it tried to bite Lazarus. He simply separated the blades and the creature fell into two lifeless pieces.

"What was that?" Theta panted.

"The Scourge of Fortuna, now we really need to move Theta." Lazarus was already running down the tunnel with the lantern.

Alex followed them further, he needed to take them all out, if others were down here, this would be the easiest way.

* * *

Wolf dragged Jack through the jungle, Leon made a perfect distraction and Panther was already back dealing with the rest of them with a sniper rifle. The hardest part was not killing Jack, he was a nuisance. Fighting and kicking endlessly, always trying to scream for help. Wolf saw a long purple line cut through the trees. A few screams, then nothing, Wolf smiled. Everything was working according to plan. Wolf kept dragging Jack, who now was starting to give in.

"Let him go Wolf." A voice sounded from the trees. A lone figure stepped in front of him.

"What, it can't be!" He shout shocked.

"What do you mean?" The figure took another step closer with, mocking him.

"You, you're dead." Wolf snarled.

"I don't think a dead man could fight you." The figure raised his arms.

"You've changed pup, had a taste of the other life didn't you?" Wolf said as he tied Jack to a tree.

"I'm still not as low as you." Iota wasn't fooling Wolf, he was still Fox McCloud in his eyes.

"That explains why you've been hiding for so long." Wolf got into attack position.

Fox threw a punch at Wolf, who quickly ducked and swiped under Fox. Fox jumped over the leg and kicked at Wolf's head. This time the strike connected and threw Wolf back. Fox ran to him and elbowed Wolf in the stomach, kicked him in the head, then unleashed a flurry of kicks striking from all positions. Fox finished by grabbing Wolf and throwing him into a tree.

Wolf quickly recovered and swiped at Fox three times. Fox nimbly dodged the first two, but the last one connected. Giving him a cut down his back. Wolf delivered a punch to Fox's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Fox tried to get up, but Wolf kicked him every time he tried to move. Finally Fox grabbed Wolf's leg and twisted it, forcing the rest of his body to twist. Wolf fell face down to the ground. Fox got back up and grabbed Wolf by the neck.

"You're lucky I'm still merciful." Fox said as he squeezed tight.

"Y…ou'll pay Mc..Cloud…" Wolf choked before blacking out.

Fox dropped the body and ran to Jack.

"Hmm, I knew Fox McCloud wasn't dead, I didn't expect him to be here though." Jack said.

"You best keep this little incident to yourself." Fox whispered.

"It's odd, your worst enemy could tell who you were almost on the spot, but none of your friends could." Jack said as Fox untied him. Fox winced.

"Tell me Fox, why did you become Iota." Jack asked.

"I don't remember you being a psychiatrist Jack." Fox snarled.

"No need to get hostile, I just wonder why, it confuses me why you left it all behind." Jack asked calmly.

"Everything left me behind." Was Fox's reply.

Jack just shrugged and followed him back to the rest of the team.

* * *

"I can see you! Now I can't, I see you again." Falco laughed as he clicked his little flash light on and off.

Clarke sighed, Falco was doped up so that he didn't have to endure the pain of his lost leg. But it was just the same as getting drunk, Falco had no idea where he was or what was going on.

"Hello!" A voice shouted.

"Over here! Over here damn it, we're over here!" Clarke shouted desperately.

" Oh man am I glad to see you guys, I've been walking down here for who knows how long." Epsilon said as he ran to the duo.

"You've been lost too?" Clarke asked.

"I've been running from those worms, I think they follow your sound. Have you found any yet?" Epsilon asked.

"Not for awhile, the last encounter was nasty, Falco lost his leg." Clarke replied.

"What!? Now we really need to get out of here." Epsilon whispered.

"Help's on the way I think, we contacted Slippy about twenty minutes ago." Clarke said.

"You have signal here?" Epsilon asked.  
"Yeah, it's pretty weak though, the last message was pretty garbled." Clarke answered.

"It's better than what I had before, there is no radio whatsoever beyond this point." Epsilon said.

Clarke heard dirt moving just behind Epsilon.

"They're back!" Clarke shouted as he drew his blaster.

Epslion did the same while Falco just sat and watched. The living mounds of dirt came speeding towards them. Clarke shot the piles, they instantly exploded, revealing the nasty creatures and their razor sharp teeth.

"Keep shooting!" Clarke shouted, as he shot one of the exposed creatures.

Blood spurted from it's body as it writhed around until it lay dead on the ground. They kept this up, but more and more showed up. The situation changed to hopeless when they started coming out of the walls and celling. Suddenly a flare dropped in the cavern.

"Come on you guys, get out of there!" Theta said shooting at the worms.

Clarke and Epsilon lifted Falco together and ran through the mounds. The worms jumped out and greedily snapped at them. Theta and Lazarus kept them safe, shooting at any one of the worms that dare surface near them. They ran as fast as they could to Theta and Lazarus, finally they made it to them. But they didn't stop running, the worms turned their attention to all five of them.

"The rope's just up ahead!" Lazarus yelled.

They quickly tied Falco to Clarke and sent him up, then Theta and Epsilon went before Lazarus finally went.

The climb was hectic, Clarke could hear the worms drilling around in the walls, it wouldn't be long before they picked them off on the wall. He climbed even faster, as the creatures in the wall began to get closer. Eventually he could see light, his hands finally reached the top of the of the wall. Clarke pushed himself out with all his might and ran with Falco to the landing site. Soon the others climbed back up and ran with him, it was even more hectic than climbing, because as they left the ruins. They could hear the soil rumbling, they were coming to the surface. And that was the least of their problems, at the entrance of the ruins, the supramorph from before climbed out of the hole. It was already charging towards them like a bull seeing red.

"What the hell, we made it out?" Falco said as if he had just woken up, the drugs had worn off.

"Yeah now we're in hot pursuit, the worms and the supramorph are right on our tails." Clarke panted, he could see the arwings in the clearing up ahead. People were already there.

"Get in the arwings damn it! Get in there!" Epsilon yelled, it didn't take long for them to cooperate.

"Put me in mine Clarke, I don't need a leg to fly it." Falco yelled to him.

"On it." Clarke said as he ran to the arwing and dropped Falco in.

Clarke ran to his while Jack followed Alex into his. Theta watched in horror as the mounds erupted releasing thousands of ravenous worms that lunged at the arwings, she pounded her control faster than ever before and the arwing blasted off, leaving the worms behind.

Alex felt the arwing heat up as they pushed through the atmosphere of Fortuna. Finally they had escaped the nightmare from below and were headed straight up, The _Sky Atlantis_ came into view within seconds.

"What were those things?" Lucy asked over the communicator.

"They are the Scourge, an under dwelling species that eat any animal that comes into sight. Sometimes it's so drastic they eat themselves. Those ruins were buit on a nest without them knowing about it, looks like Oinkonny wasn't the only one to run it down." Lazarus answered.

"Remind me when this is all over not to take a vacation to Fortuna, losing a leg wasn't on my list of things to do." Falco asked.

"We really need to take care of that when we get back, how much has it bled since it was lost?" Epsilon asked, it wasn't very well known, but at one point he was a doctor.

"Not very much, I patched it up with some makeshift bandages after I fell." Falco answered.

"You need to come with me on the ship, I'll need Slippy as well." Epsilon answered.

"Hey guys you're back, is everyone okay?" Slippy asked.

"We're all fine, except Falco, Epsilon wants you to come with him somewhere on the ship when we get back on." Lazarus replied.

"Okay, see you back on the ship." Slippy's face disappeared from the screen.

The nightmare was over for now, they could rest and get out of there, but they still needed to get back to planet Kew for more orders from the General. Alex really needed to get that wraith out of his head, when Jack got back he would ask.

* * *

**Mission Complete: Notes: Jack's rescue was a success thanks to Lucy and Iota, in the future it is suggested to watch out for Star Wolf activity. They had plans of their own and their very own Supramorph to command. Extreme caution is advised on the next mission.**

**Casualties: 0**

**Hours: 36**

* * *

**A/N: Spencer here, sorry this chapter is a bit short, I wanted to finish this mission up and get on with the story, until next time, happy reading!**

**P.S. I'm going to have some different weapons other than the ones featured on assault, spice things up a bit. **


	13. Torn Lives and Mending Broken Hearts

**Disclaimer: Star Fox and co. belongs to Nintendo.**

Falco was pushed in a wheel chair to the Mechanic room, Mech room for short, here most mechanical construction takes place. Katt walked next him holding his hand.

"Okay Falco, I'm going to administer the drugs, this is going to be a very delicate procedure, I've only done it once in my life time." Epsilon explained to Falco as he put the syringe in his neck, the effects were almost immediate as Falco fell into deep sleep.

"Okay Slippy, help me put him on the table." Epsilon said as he lifted Falco up.

"Slippy we need to get a metal leg, joints have to be correct and everything, use bio wiring." Epsilon commanded. Slippy was already on the job building the leg.

Epsilon was at work helping with the stump, most nerves were severed, but intact from the leg on. He needed to get rid of the last piece of bone stuck to Falco. Working his way up, he used a laser scapel to cut open Falco's thigh, all the way to the bone. Using the scapel again he cut away the cartilage at the pelvis and extracted the leg through the stump. The stump of leg now went limp.

"How's that leg going Slippy?" Espilon asked

"Almost done." Slippy answered.

"At the tip of the thigh, replicate a leg bone for me." Things weren't going to be simple on Slippy's part

Slippy pulled up a replica of a skeleton and expertly using metal cutters he created an exact replication of the bone.

"Nicely done." Epsilon said.

Epsilon moved the leg into the stump, and into the pelvic socket. Using the previous incision, he was able to work with the bone. Using a special bio paste, it worked like synthetic cartilage, putting the metal leg in place.

"Now for the rest of the leg." Epsilon said as he patched up the incision.

He moved down, on delicately put the wire and nerves together, he sealed each on with bio paste.

" Now close up the wires and get to work on the outside of the leg." Epsilon said to Slippy.

Slippy went straight to work, he put a covering on the delicate structure of the leg, and a protective thick metal plate over the wires.

"Now we wait, when he wakes up, we'll be able to tell if the operation is a success or not." Epsilon says taking off his medical hear, Slippy follows him.

Katt paced anxiously around the Mech. Room door, it was her turn to wait.

"Hey Katt whats up?" Theta asked as she walked by.

"I'm scared Theta, really scared. Falco could lose his job forever, and any chance for other jobs. He's worked so hard in life, I don't want to see him lose it all now." Theta said quivering.

"It's okay, I know Epsilon personally, sometimes we break our oath and we let the past sneak in. That's a good thing in this case. When he changes to doctor, he could probably work a miracle, so don't worry, Falco's in good hands." Theta said with a comforting smile.

Katt clenched her eyes shut, _I hope she's telling the truth._

* * *

Iota had been in Kursed's room for an hour now, and Clarke was getting a bit jumpy, what could they doing for an hour? Alex walked next to Clarke.

"They're not doing what you think they're doing." Alex said to him.

"I don't need your thoughts, get out of here!" Clarke said jumping.

"Okay, okay, there's no need to worry though." Alex said leaving.

Inside the room, Kursed and Iota were just talking, about different things that they didn't get to on Fortuna. Iota was talking about one of his experiences on Suaria.

"I remember a long while ago, I went to the planet Sauria on government duties, and I met a young prince Tricky. He was a useful asset on the mission, but you have to remember he was still a child. Tricky did things little kids do, which was very unhelpful at times" Iota said.

"You've been to Sauria?" Kursed asked with interest.

"Yep, I go there a lot on my free time, it's a beautiful place. No one knows who I am, but I know everyone there." Iota said.

"Wow, I spent most of my teenage life on Sauria. I had an older brother, or that's what he called himself. He was probably at least two years older than me. He was always looking out for me, very protective. Then, he well, just disappeared, I don't know where or why, he just did." Kursed shrugged.

"You don't seemed too torn up about it." Iota said.

"It's because I don't think he was my brother, I remember an old Cerenian custom where two people were paired at birth. Usually very important people, a suitor at birth, but then my planet was destroyed, and only a few Cerenians lived on. But anyways, I think he was going to be my future suitor before the planet was destroyed." Kursed explained.

"That's kind of…" Iota started, he couldn't think of the right word.

"Odd?" Kursed said with a smile.

"Yeah, a little more than that actually." Iota said a little disturbed, he didn't mean to offend customs.

"I'm sort of glad he disappeared. I would've never got to choose my destiny with him around. It's lonely without another of your kind, but there's so many people and things out there." Kursed said.

"What got you off of Sauria?" Iota asked.

"I met my knight in shining armour, he flew in and saved me and the planet from a terrible death." Kursed said.

"He saved the planet!" Iota suddenly perked up, this was sounding all too familiar.

"Yeah, I was probably 18 at the time, he defeated Andross who had attacked the planet, and I got a ride from one of his friends who let me on his ship. From that point on our relationship started, he even let me join his team." Kursed said.

Iota was dumbstruck, how couldn't he have realized it before. Now he knew he was stupid. He studied Kursed to make sure, now he could see it. In her smile, her face and eyes. It was her! Iota didn't know what to say, she probably would kill him or something like that if he told her that he was Fox McCloud, the very one who ruined her life.

"Wow." Iota, no Fox, shoot his head

"Yeah, but it's eventually what ruined us." Kursed said she looked a little down.

"Tell me about your "knight" then." Fox asked, trying to cheer her, and mostly himself, up.  
"When we first met, like really met, it was on his ship. We did something like what we're doing right know, we talked like this and got to know eachother a little better. Time went on, and the relationship turned from talking to more romantic things." Kursed said.

"So what if you met him again, what would you do?" Fox asked.

"I would probably hit him if he came back. I know for sure that I would never love him again, I lost everything because of him." Kursed answered a little upset

Fox weighed his options, if he told her the truth, then he'd get dropped and his whole search for Krystal would end in tradgedy. Then again, if he never tried, then he would never know.

"So tell me about your life, I haven't heard much from you, you said you also fell in love." Kursed asked. Fox decided he would keep it a secret for now.

"Okay, She was my damsel in distress. The first real one in my life, the only other one that was close had to be one of my whiny teammates at the time. She was on Sauria, and to make a long story short, I saved her." Fox laughed. Kursed proccessed the memory.

"Then I let her join my team, it took us awhile, but she got the hang of riding an arwing eventually. The long months of training and hard work payed off. She became one hell of a pilot. Like your love, I thought mine was going to last forever Kursed. Then during the Anglar Wars. She died, I lost her at the very end of the war. From that point on my life spiraled out of control. I became an alcoholic, until every bit of my money was gone. I was forced into the streets. Then, I met Lazarus. He pulled me through, saved me from everything." Most of what Fox said was true.

"That's terrible." Kursed said.

"It's over now, I've since gotten over it. But now I'm starting to feel like my purpose is gone, just a piece of meat that keeps on living." Fox said.

"Mission alert, leaving to Kew in 5 minutes." Slippy said over the intercom

"I guess I'd better go." Fox got up and went to the door.

"Hey Iota." Kursed called to him. He turned around.

* * *

"I'm glad we could talk." She stood up and kissed him on the cheek. Fox froze stupefied. Kursed laughed, Fox nodded his head and left the room.

Alex sat on his bed reading a book, "it was a classic" Slippy explained. It had been around for thousands of years. Strange enough, Alex could relate to the book. The main character wanted to create life, so he goes and digs up some graves and creates a monster out of body parts. Alex was reading that the mad scientist was bringing the monster to life. He was interrupted when Iota walked into the room, he looked like he had been slapped.

"Hey Iota, whats wrong?" Alex asked.

"I…I don't want to talk about it." He said as if waking from a trance.

"Okay, well, get ready quick. We're leaving pretty soon." Alex said as he left the room.

* * *

Falco

slowly woke up, he could feel his leg! It had all been a dream, he probably was still back in bed waiting for the next mission. As he stood up, he saw that he wasn't in his room, he was in the Mech. Room. Katt was sitting on a chair reading a book.

"Katt!" Falco laughed.

"Falco, you're okay." She answered relieved.

"What happened?" Falco asked.

"Epsilon and Slippy gave you a new leg, it's almost as good as the other one." Katt said.

Falco looked down, he moved his metal leg around, it felt oddly natural.

"Hey look who's awake." Epsilon said sitting next to Falco. "Looks like your leg works fine."

"Yeah, actually it's pretty good." Falco said smiling.

"Good, because we're heading to Kew in a few minutes, get ready for another mission." Epsilon stood up and left the room.

"I'm going to love the look on the guys face after I've kicked him." Falco said laughing, he stood up to test the leg. It felt heavier, like weights were hung around it. But the important part was that it worked.

* * *

Jack sat in the control room with Slippy, who was giving him a lesson on the controls. _Why did I open my big mouth?_ Jack thought to himself. This guy had been going about the same button for an hour at least, after already spending another hour on the previous button.

"Hey guys." Lucy said walking into the room. _Thank you_, Iota said a silent prayer to himself.

"Hey Lucy, I was explaining to Jack the many manuevers you could pull off by just thrusting with different rockets.

"That sounds pretty cool." Lucy said, Jack took a sharp breath. "Whoops, I just realized, I needed Jack, how forgetful I can get?"

"Okay, see ya Jack." Slippy chirped.

Lucy and Jack left the control room and walked into the living area.

"So what do you need?" Jack asked.

"Nothing, I've been to Slippy's button lectures before. I can tell you this much, I've never met a person who enjoyed one." Lucy said sitting on the couch.

"Thanks." Jack said.

"Don't mention it." Lucy turned on the T.V. and began watching shows.

"We've got signal out here?" Jack asked as he sat down next to her.

"Super signal, I heard that Team Star Fox requested this ship, along with all of the features, but they split up after the leader Fox McCloud and his girlfriend Krystal died." Lucy replied. Jack was silent for a moment

"What happened to them?" Jack asked.

"Krystal killed herself and Fox disappeard, and he's been gone for two and a half years now." Lucy explained.

Jack was quiet for awhile, he just watched the television with Lucy when Slippy's voice sounded all over the ship.

"Hold on to your seats everyone, we're heading to Kew in five…four…three…two…one…blast off!" Slippy shouted.

Jack was pounded into his seat, he could only describe it as a roller coaster. Everything stopped after a full minute of space travel.

"Okay everyone, suit up, we're going to the surface." Slippy voice echoed

Alex unbuckled his seat belt, he hated light speed travel.

"Come on man, we need to get to the hangar." Iota said to Alex as he walked by.

Alex stood up and followed the others to the hangar, he wondered what was in store for them next. They had found Jack, and Jack explained that they needed to destroy the supramorphs with plasma, and a lot of it. But what was the plan to get them all? Alex felt uneasy as he stepped into his arwing. Everything could possibly depend on him, but what if he failed? Everyone would die, Bowman would rule, Alex knew that clearly. Failure wasn't an option. He needed to stick with his friends, to do everything in his power to stop the madness.

Alex started up his arwing and blasted out of the hangar, now being in an arwing was what he liked. It was like looking at a beautiful picture, the cockpit showed everything. He looked straight ahead, there before him was a large sky blue planet.

"Okay people, this is planet Kew, a word of caution. This place is where most thugs meet and drink. I'm not aware of anyone actually setting up a home here, but I do know that you need to watch your backs. Sources indicate that a suspicous man in black has been loitering around the General's hiding place, guys, please be careful." Slippy said, Alex froze in his seat. His brother was the last thing he wanted to worry about.

The team slowly flew closer and closer to the planet, cutting through the atmosphere. Alex looked as pale blue sky remained behind them. There before him was a huge rolling grass land, and very close by, was a city.

They landed in the field and jumped out, the city before them had a very menacing look. A few drunken men limped around, some falling to the ground laughing insane, ear piercing laughs. Some bystanders just walked over and shot the drunkards, the crowds would gather and cheer them on. Alex wasn't the only one who wanted to leave

"Jack, take my blaster." Alex whispered.

"Why? Don't you need it?" Jack asked.

"Don't you remember who you're talking to?" Alex said rolling his eyes.

Jack took the blaster with out any more questions and continued forward.

"Okay guys, The General is located with in the Melting Pot, a bar located in the uptown region, only three of you will go in, the rest of you, keep watch, remember that man in black, most likely a supramorph is still on this planet. Lazarus has the card key, a man will ask you, "Is my aunt okay?" At that point say she's fine, and he'll ask for her letter, hand him the card key and he'll let you through" Slippy said over the communicators.

They followed the road until they found two signs, one that said "Downtown." With a large C engraved into the bottom and the other said "Uptown."

"Glad we're not Downtown anymore." Clarke said.

Just up the road they saw "Melting Pot" in beg neon letters.

"Who's going with me?" Lazarus asked.

"I will." Fox said immediately.

"I guess I will." Alex said.

"Okay, lets go." Lazarus led both of them into the bar.

When they walked in, it was packed. It was a good thing not all of them went in. In the corner of the room, a group of shady characters were sitting at a table. They noticed the three and walked towards them.

"Hey man, how's my aunt doin'?" he asked.

"She's doing just fine." Lazarus replied.

"Did she give you my letter?" The man asked again.

"Yep, it's right here." Lazarus answered, he pulled out the small envelope and handed it to the man.

"Come with me." The man whispered, changing from gangster to proffesional.  
He led them outside where the rest were waiting.

"They're with me." Lazarus said. The man nodded and the rest of the team followed.

They walked behind the Melting Pot, into the back alley. The man looked around and went over to a dumpster. He opened up the side to reveal a key pad, he tapped the numbers and the dumpster moved aside, revealing a trap door.

"Quick, before any one sees." The man said opening the trap door, the team scrambled inside.

It was a lot more roomier than expected, the man closed the trap door and pressed a button. A rumbling could be heard, and then it stopped. He went into a key pad on the wall and punched in a code there. This time, the whole room shifted downwards, it was a giant elevator. Just at the bottom were seven doors, the man led them to one, slid the card key in a slot by the door. Then it opened up, inside was the General, he was waiting for them.

"Hello team, I can see that your last mission was successful." Peppy said with a smile, he quickly changed to serious. "Jack, I have one question to ask you for now."

"Go ahead." Jack said.

"Is there any others that know of information regarding Project Alex?" Peppy asked.

"Actually, there is. My collegue, Daren Harvey, was the only other survivor of Bowman's insane attacks." Jack explained uneasy as he watched Peppy's face.

"Oh my, this is serious. Team, on the planet Fachina, Bowman's chairman there is meeting with a person claiming to have files explaining the supramorph creation process." Peppy said. The team was stunned, Jack shook his head.

"You can't be serious, Daren wouldn't do this! I've known the guy for years, we've been best pals forever. Why would he do such a thing?" Jack said in disbelief.

"I understand Jack, but greed can destroy even the most strongest of friendships. I know that from personal experience." Peppy sympathized. Jack looked away.

"My point is, you need to stop it, but that's not the only worry we have for that planet. Two days ago while you were on Fortuna, we sent a recon team headed by Sgt. Gray to Fachina. The team disappeared without a trace, we need you to find out the wereabouts of that team as well." Peppy commanded. "Good luck, and see you after this mission is done."

The team left the room, none of them liked the idea of staying in the cold. There was always the what if they got lost and seperated again on this planet, all of them might not make it this time. The guard escorted them through the hidden entrance and led outside, the walked back in the street to downtown, where Jack heard a voice he hated more than anything in the world.

"Well, if it isn't Clarke Robin, you still owe me my friend." Carlilse said walking to the group.

"Get the hell out of here Carlisle if you know what's good for you." Jack burst as he grabbed Carlisle by the collar of his shirt.

"Heh, Jack Sorense, you don't scare me anymore." Carlisle laughed.

"I have nothing to lose now, I will hang you with your intestines for what you did." Jack snarled.

"Nothing to lose? Oh that's right, your whore of a wife Sophie is dead, along with your bratty kid." Carlilse mocked. "I have one thing to say, she felt good, I love it when they scream for help, and the person they call for doesn't' come. They're a lot easier after that."

Jack was at the point of ripping Carlilses head off, he lifted Carlilse off the ground and slammed him into the wall next to him. Jack pounded Carlilse's face until the nose probably was about to pierce his own brain. Previously unseen members of Carlisle's mafia appeared out of nowhere and pried Jack off of their leader. Jack fought like a wild dog, kicking and biting his assailants. The rest of the team pitched in and attacked the mafia. They were no match for the bounty hunters, many of them fell dead as the team shot, hacked, and pounded their way through them.

"Get out of here! Damn it, get out." Carlilse shouted, his voice was distorted by his broken nose. The mafia stood up and ran for their lives.

"Jack are you okay?" Lucy asked.

"That son of a bitch, what more does he want from me?" Jack sobbed, he was bleeding on the ground after taking a knife from one of the attackers.

"Come on, lets get out of here." Lucy said offering him her hand. Jack took her hand and she helped him up.

"Jack, who was that?" Alex asked. Jack looked at Alex

"The murderer, he killed Sophie and Alex. But not before raping Sophie over and over, he never let me forget that. Then, he…" Jack choked.

"Hey calm down, come on Jack, you've been through a lot today." Alex said.

"He beat Alex to death, he was only ten damn it, ten years old. I could barely recognize the body. And then, the police didn't arrest Carlilse, even though he was guilty. He bribed the police and the judge, they took his dirty money. Carlilse got away with out any charges." Jack ignored Alex and broke down in the street. The team looked at Jack with sympathy, it was hard to even think about what Jack just went through meeting his family's murderer face to face.

"Come on, lets go." Alex said, Jack stood up and started walking. The rest of the team followed in silence.

**

* * *

**

A/N: Hey, hope everyone's enjoying the story, I just wanted to say that I have a poll up on my profile, it involves Kursed and Iota's love life (just your opinion) so go ahead and check it out.


	14. Mission 2 Pt 1: Deathly Cold

**Disclaimer: Star Fox belongs to Nintendo. **

The confrontation with Carlilse still burned in Alex's brain as he went to sleep. He felt Jack's anger at the creature, Alex didn't even dare think of Carlilse as a fellow being. People like him were the real monsters, they killed for kicks. Alex fell into deep sleep for what seemed like a second. He opened his eyes again and Iota was already up and getting ready for the mission. Iota was in a special thermal jacket, it ran on a special battery pack that kept the user warm no matter what condition.

"We have to use that?" Alex said looking at the cumbersome pack.

"I don't know about you, but Fachina's weather has been totally altered by the new climate control center. I'd freeze the second I entered the atmosphere. Then there's the gale force winds in the sky, we can't go in arwings on this mission." Iota explained.

"So how do we get to the surface?" Alex asked getting into a thermal jacket.

"A special drop ship is waiting by the planet, we'll fly there and get shot into the planet." Iota said grabbing a thermal mask and leaving the room.

Alex didn't like the idea of this mission, they were going to plunge into the planet without any chance of backup. He slid into a Thermal Jacket and grabbed a mask as well. When he left the room and went to the newly repaired cafeteria, everyone was already there waiting.

"Hey Slippy, when are we leaving?" Alex asked.

"Probably after breakfast, we need to hurry, if Bowman gets those plans, then Lylat will be forced to surrender." Slippy answered.

The rest of breakfast was fairly quiet, Theta was talking to Lucy about something and Jack tried to find out what Alex had been doing for the past two weeks. Time dragged on slowly as they finished. Finally Slippy called them to the briefing room.

"Hey guys, if you haven't heard already, we can't get on the planet with conventional means. The weather is so severe, that we're taking a special drop ship to the planet. Right now we're hovering fairly close to Fachina, as you can see, the planet's surface appears to be moving at a fast rate." Slippy explained.

They all looked out the window, it looked like an ocean of white. Waves and everything appeared to come straight from clouds.

"First things first, stop Bowman's contact." Slippy said as a picture of Daren popped on the screen. "This is the guy you need to look out for in the climate control center." A holographic map appeared. "This is a map of the climate control center, a special force field keeps strangers from entering, you'll need a special key card to enter. Luckily, Bowman has a mine just about two miles away from the climate control center, the soldiers there have key cards." Slippy said as the map moved a little to a small rectangular area.

"Second, we need to find the whereabouts of Sgt. Gray and his team, see what you can do about that. His last known postion was in this cave." The map moved over to the said cave. "Finally, shut down Bowman's climate control center and get the original climate control center back online, the General has soldiers on stand by waiting to enter the atmosphere and attack. We're approaching the drop ship, good luck guys." Slippy finished.

* * *

The team stepped onto the drop ship, Alex was surprised Jack was coming too.  
"Jack, what are you doing here?" Alex said as he followed soldiers out of the hangar.

"This is my problem, I'm going to deal with it." Jack replied. Alex shrugged and kept going.

They entered a room that could pass as a class room, on the far end of the room stood a heavy set man in his late twenties. To Alex he looked friendly enough. He began to speak as everyone entered the room.

"Hello, my name is Dr. Kahn, head of Lylat transportation research and development. I understand this is your first time using the drop ship system?" Kahn greeted in a thick accent, everyone nodded their heads. "Okay, it is simple enough, you step into the pod, strap in, press a few buttons and we'll handle the rest. But this could be a little rough, we've never had to drop a pod in this kind of weather, so plan on having some slight motion sickness." The Dr. explained.

No one appeared to be worried, it was probably nothing too serious. Kahn showed them to the actual pods, the large room had twenty different pods lined up against the wall. Each one eight feet tall and four feet wide, each team member was helped into an open pod and buckled in. The doors shut and sealed with a hiss.

"Okay, I would suggest putting your thermal masks on now. The pods will keep the temperature stabilized until the doors pop open, so get ready to turn on the suits." Kahn said over the radio.

Alex shuffled around and pulled out the mask, he placed it over his face and locked it in place. The cramped pod made things a little difficult, but Alex managed to get everything in place.

"When you're ready to launch, press the load button and you'll be loaded into the launch chambers. From that point, get ready for launch." Kahn said as Alex tightened his seat belt and pressed the bright yellow button that said load.

The pod lurched as Alex was dragged into the launch chambers. Within a few seconds, the pod went dark. The words _"Ready to launch." _echoed through Alex's ears. The count down began "_Five…Four…Three…Two.."_Alex braced himself as the computerized voice said one. A loud boom could be heard for a split second and Alex was shooting at high speeds straight to Fachina. The flight went smooth at first, he could see the others shoot out of the drop ship. As the pod cut through the atmosphere, Alex felt he was stuck in a blender. The pod violently shook, if he hadn't been strapped in, he would be battered up by the pod. Nothing but white could be seen outside of the pod. Wind and snow attacked with tons of force. To his horror, the pod began to move on it's side. Alex was now plunging head first into the planet, he felt sick as the pod began to rotate again. The insane roller coaster ride began spinning him back into his original position, but it wasn't that way for long. Soon he was already plunging downwards headfirst again. His flight came to an abrupt stop as the impact dented his right side. The seat belt automatically unfastened itself while the radio clicked on.

"The winds threw you off track Alex, we were able to keep you in the same general area, but try and find eachother, you know what to do after that." Slippy's voice commanded.

Alex rolled his eyes and reached to the battery pack on the thermal jacket. With the flick of a switch, the jacket almost magically warmed his body. Soon he began to sweat as he reached for the door release switch. With a strong tug, the door popped off and Alex's vision was replaced with pounds of snow.

* * *

Iota choked back vomit, throwing up was not an option in his mask. He had landed upside down in his pod. And of course, they had been thrown off track. Iota pulled the door release switch and stepped into the weather. He could barely see his own two hands. The suit was working fine, he decided the best thing to do was to look at his map in the cover of the pod. Iota ran to the pod and hid inside, snow still flew in, but the map was protected. The holographic map pinpointed the other's positions all around him.

"Hello? Can anyone read me?" Kursed's voice called over the radio.

"Loud and clear Kursed, what's your position?" Iota responded.

"I'm with Lucy, I'll set off a nav. signal." Kursed answered, one of the red dots on the map changed to a bright blue.

"I see you, hang tight for a sec, I'll tell the others to head to your nav. point." Iota said thinking quickly.

"Okay Iota, hurry up, I don't think that meeting can wait any longer, Kursed out." Kursed finished.

Iota pulled out the radio and sent a message to all of the teams channels.

"Can anyone hear me?" Iota asked. Almost everyone replied at once. "Good, on your map Kursed has marked her location as the large blue dot. I want you to move as fast as you can to that point, Iota out." Iota said, once again a chorus of rights and okays.

Iota sat for a moment and set up a trail on the map, when he was done, he stood up and pushed his way through the storm.

Step after agonizing step, he pressed on. Checking his map ever so often to keep on track, there was no problems other than the weather. He looked behind him, every last foot print he left was disappearing within seconds. Getting lost was too easy on this planet, and survival would be almost impossible. Trying to keep that thought out of his head, he walked forward.

After what felt like hours of fighting wind and snow, he could see a shape in the snow. It was Kursed's pod.

"Kursed! Lucy!" Iota shouted.

"We're over here!" A voice faintly shouted back, Iota followed the voice.

He could see two figures standing close to the pod, trying hard not to trip he started to close in on them.

"You're finally here, what took you so long?" A voice laughed.

"Alex, I've only got my two legs and a map to get me here. You've got super powers." Iota huffed.

"Touche, other than me, you're the fastest. No one else has showed up." Alex replied.

"Yet, anyways." Lucy said, she was walking around in circles with Kursed.

"Why are you guys doing that?" Iota asked.

"If you stand still for too long, you'll be buried alive." Kursed said, at that Iota to began walking.

"Now I wish I wasn't the fastest." Iota said.

* * *

Slippy didn't like this mission at all, he had barely any contact with the surface with Fachina. Even the maps weren't working, someone was blocking his signals. Meaning that someone knew he was here, and knew about the mission.

"ROB, scan the ship." Slippy commanded.

"Roger commander." The little robot's voice rang through the room.

A loading screen popped onto Slippy's computer and slowly it showed pictures of each room.

"Ship condition level blue, all clear." ROB called again.

Slippy's nerves still weren't calmed, something bothered him.

* * *

"Is that everone?" Lazarus shouted through the snow. Everyone was already worn out from walking in cirlces, but still managed a weak "yes"

"Let's get going then, the mine is due south of this position, lets get going." Lazarus ordered. No one complained.

The walk was treacherous as they crawled on. The mines were on the side of a cliff, false steps would be greeted by a thousand foot drop. Everyone was connected by a thick rope tied to their waist. But still their very lives depended on the maps built into the wrist comm hard drive. Soon they came to a point where to the snow was less dense, the winds were still powerful, but not harsh. Then it almost stopped completely, a light breeze and snow flakes fluttered down.

The team looked around, a great white wall separated this calm spot from the rest of the area, what was going on? Iota found the answer.

"Guys look." He said as he pointed upwards.

Thousands of feet high stood a monstrous tower with a bright pink light on the tip. It was a miniature climate control center, keeping a select area in calm condition.

"This is too weird." Clarke said shaking his head.

"The mine must be close by, I didn't think anyone could work in the conditions outside of the field." Kursed said marching forward again.

* * *

Slippy watched outside of the _Atlantis_, the dropship stood close to the planet, nothing wrong. Yet he still had that unshakable feeling that something bad was going to happen. Unfortunately, he was right. Slippy jumped as he heard a skittering noise behind him, when he turned around there was nothing. Heart racing, Slippy reached for his blaster, he could imagine some dark figure in the corner laughing at him. Suddenly the radio clicked on, it was Dr. Kahn.

"Slippy, something terrible has happened, send for help, please, I beg you. Send for help!" Kahn shouted. Slippy ran to the radio to answer, but he heard a horrible choking noise and a thick snap. The radio was once again nothing but static. Things went from bad to worse as the dropship started shooting towards Fachina. It quickly disappeared into the thick white atmoshpere. Slippy was shaken beyond belief, things were going terribly wrong. He stood from his seat and ran for the door. Only to come face to face with Wolf O'donnel.

"Where do you think you're going?" Wolf mocked.

Slippy didn't answer, he kicked Wolf in the crotch and ran for his life. Wolf, who had doubled over in pain, called for back up. Slippy could hear the footsteps running down the hallways. Luckily, Slippy had the advantage of having superior knowledge of the ship. But they still had numbers, and time for running was wearing thin. Slippy knew that eventually he would have to fight whatever was at the end of the next hallway. He drew his blaster and charged the shot.

"Take this creeps!" Slippy screamed as he jumped out of the corner and shot.

His target nimbly dodged and returned fire. Slippy quickly turned on a barrier as the shots barreled towards him in slowmotion. They sunk into the barrier, leaving Slippy unharmed.

Panther really hated this kind of thing, but he knew that in time, the frog would be open again. This time there would be no time to think. Panther unloaded thousands upon thousands of plasma chain gun bullets. Stopping only to quickly replace the plasma charge. Slippy could see his barrier visibly deteriorating.

With no choice, he charged at Panther. Panther surprised, tried to dodge, but Slippy tackled the cat and started punching for his life. Panther, now annoyed, threw Slippy off. Slippy stuck the landing and began to run again, Panther followed close behind. He still fired off the monstrous chaingun, but the recoil threw off his aiming. Still, he would eventually hit Slippy.

Slippy shot with his blaster behind him as well, but was still just as inacurate. His short fat body and stubby legs didn't help with the chase. Slippy was huffing and panting, sweat drizzled from his pours. Running was no use, his energy was depleting. _I'm going to start working out if I survive this_. He thought to himself. Panther caught up quickly with the tiring frog, and with every step closer, the closer his shots came to hitting Slippy. Knowing his disadvantage and the mortal danger he was in, Slippy pulled off a suicidal maneuver.

He stopped, pivoted around, aimed and fired at Panther. The shot came close to hitting his head, but it went a bit lower and hit him in the chest. Panther fell backwards as the shot connected and he lay still. Slippy had no idea if he was dead or not, but there was no way he was going to find out. Slippy began to slowly walk down the hallways, trying not to loudly gulp air.

* * *

Alex moved into the mining camp, soldiers in mining gear walked into a tunnel while others supervised. The camp was crawling with guards, this operation was a big deal. Stealth was key, and that meant that Alex would have to strip down and blend in with the snow. He turned off the jacket, which made his body feel weird. His fur grew out and thickened. It felt like he never took the jacket off. He worked his way out of the jacket and slipped out of his pants. He hoped no one on the team was watching as he finished getting out of his clothes before he changed to the color of the snow.

He took a look at his hand, invisible. Alex moved to the camp and grabbed a random guard and silenced him. He quickly sifted through the pockets and found no key card, Alex observed the guards. The supervisors dressed in different uniform and stood next to large cargo trucks. The miners would bring in the precious materials and load them into the trucks, then it would drive off. Most likely the climate control center. That meant that somebody in those trucks must have a key card.

He isolated a supervisor and snapped his neck. Alex proceeded to sift through the pockets, still no key card. Now he was confused, who else would have a key card? Alex looked for more kinds of people, he honed in on one of the drivers. This time he wasn't very careful, the driver spotted his foot prints and raised his gun. Alex had to act now, with blinding speed he pounced on the guard and killed him. Thankfully, there was a key card.

"Get it, somebody get it!" A startled soldier shouted. Alex ran back to his clothes and put them back on, more importantly, he got the communicator back on.

"How's the tower going?" Alex said pulling out his gun.

"Fine, we've got the charges set and we're on our way, you get the card?" Iota responded.

"Yeah, but I've got company, _damn it_!" Alex shouted as a rocket whizzed past his head and struck the ground behind him, the explosion threw Alex six feet forward.

"What was that?" Iota said startled.

"They've got rockets, big rockets." Alex said panting.

"Damn it, now they know where we are too." Iota said, Alex could hear gun shots in the background.

"Okay, hang tight for a minute, I'm going to try and get a truck over there." Alex said running to the vehicles.

These were some kind of new bullet. The wounds healed like normal, but boy did they hurt. And some how they drained him, as he took on over a hundred bullets now, he could feel his knees weaken. He dived into the snow and slashed at guards, the snow stained red as he hacked through them. Soon Alex felt he was going to collapse, he picked up a dead guard's spread gun and shot at anyone who got in his way. Many bodies had fallen before he finally got into one of the vehicles.

Alex slid the card through a slot where the inginition would be and the engine started. Slamming on the pedal, Alex left the bedlam behind him and drove to the tower.

* * *

"Take him out! Clarke cover our flank right flank." Lazarus ordered, the team had been fighting for their lives at the base of the miniature climate control center.

"I need some help over here, they've got trucks coming!" Lucy shouted.

"Trucks?" Iota said looking through binoculars.

"Yeah, about five." Kursed said shooting a sniper rifle at the windshields, one truck slid on it's side. "Make that four."

"That's not all of them, there has to be at least twenty of them." Theta said after looking around, they were coming in fast.

"Hold on, what's that over there?" Lucy asked, it looked like one of the trucks, but it was plowing past other trucks. Bright lights could be seen shooting from the side windows.

"It's Alex! He finally made it!" Clarke shouted, for the first time he was happy to see Alex.

Alex was closing in on the tower, the rest of the team ran to the truck. The truck stopped as the team kept running. Alex jumped out, he realized he had left the mining materials in the back. He threw the tools and rocks into the snow as the team finally closed in.

"Get in the back!" Alex shouted, they ran past him and started loading in.

Alex picked himself up and ran to the drivers seat, swiped the card.

"Wait! Theta still has to get on!" Iota shouted, time was wasting and Theta lagged behind. Alex poked his head out of the window and saw her running for her life as the trucks got closer and closer. But nothing prepared them for what happened next.

She neared the truck, people at the entrance held their arms out ready to pull her in. Theta was at least four feet away from the truck when a purple streak punched through her chest. She stopped in her tracks and fell to her knees. Time stopped, Iota looked at her and Theta looked him in the eye. And beyond all comprehension, she smiled. It was a sad smile, like a fallen angel, only Iota and Theta knew what these last words meant. Theta's smile dropped and she fell to the ground The girl who would be known only as Theta, breathed no more. Alex reluctantly drove from the body in the middle of the field, Lazarus detonated the charge and the tower collapsed. Instantly, the powerful winds and snow covered everything. The body disappeared in the wall of snow, a short burial for a short funeral.

Alex drove on to the climate control center, speechless. For the first time in years, Fox McCloud burst into tears. He didn't want to believe this, the person who had helped him through so much. His friend, his ally, gone forever in a flash. Fox always knew this would happen. But he never wanted to believe it. Everyone tried to comfort him, he calmed down for the sake of sanity. No one wanted to deal with that, and he knew it. Still, he mourned silently, not speaking. Kursed wrapped her arm around him, he hugged her back. _Oh if she knew the truth_. Fox thought to himself and closed his eyes.

* * *

Slippy now crawled through the vents of the ship, he couldn't risk being in the halls. Quickly he hacked into his own mainframe and looked at security cameras. Bowman's special SWAT team had moved in the ship. It consisted of soldiers and Wolf's Team. They had successfully hijacked the _LSS Atlantis_, but they still stayed within a close distance of Fachina. Why? Slippy knew exactly why, the team on the surface was walking into a death trap. He knew he needed to prevent it, but how? He needed to risk his life to get the message to them. Using all of his knowledge of computers, Slippy was able to send a note to the team, hopefully they would get it. Footsteps could be heard coming to the vent, a figure bent down and looked into the grate

"Look's like we have a toad in the hole, don't worry, we'll deal with you accordingly." The voice said, it sounded a lot like Alex's, but much more cruel.

Slippy then realized that this was a supramorph, he started crawling, but the supramorph had already wrenched off the grate and was crawling inside, almost like a snake. Slippy was no match, the creature grabbed him by the legs and dragged him out of the vent. Slippy couldn't even imagine what would come next.

* * *

The truck was silent aside from the constant wind, no one moved. Kursed and Iota still sat together locked in embrace while Clarke watched sullenly. Jack was lost in his own thought. Star Falco had moved closer together, they had been reminded just how easy it was to die in the business. Lazarus and Epsilon mourned in their own way quiet way.

Alex drove on and on, nothing could be seen, by the naked eye that is. A specialized GPS gave him an exact replica of the terrain as he drove through it, he would be at the climate control center in no time. He looked into the snow, shocked, he saw the large figures of the trucks. This meant they were very, very close.

"Guys, the trucks followed us, it's not over yet." Alex yelled.

Iota looked down, time for revenge. Alex had said that they shot rockets at him earlier, so there was a chance that they had some on the truck. He looked under the seats, thinking like a soldier. Where would they keep weapons on these things? Iota looked and looked, then he smiled, beneath Jack's feet was a hatch. Iota bent down and opened it up, inside lay tons of guns and ammo. And even better, a Demon Launcher. He pulled out the large yellow gun and loaded the rockets in.

"Open up the door!" Iota shouted. Lucy quickly pulled it up and snow flooded in, just as Alex said, there was dark figures in the snow. Iota took aim and used the computer to lock on.

"Take this you bastards." Iota whispered as he fired. Three huge rockets shot out and into the snow, instantly turning towards their targets. Giant explosions shook the air and giant blazes of fire engulfed the targets. To everyone else the fires looked like dying embers, Iota loaded the gun back up and locked on again. He shot off fifteen rockets in total, each one hit something. Nothing could be seen once again. Lucy shut the door and Iota placed the gun back into the hatch and closed it.

"Not bad, not bad." Falco said patting Iota on the back.

"Hold on a sec, I've got a message from Slippy." Iota said, everyone checked their communicators.

"Why's it in text?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know, let's find out." Iota said. "Team, my position has been given away. I have evidence leading to Alex as the traitor of our position. Don't be fooled by him, he has lied to us all. He's leading you to a death trap at the climate control center, like he did to Sgt. Gray. I'm being held hostage aboard the dropship while the supramorphs have taken over the _Atlantis_."

They all looked at Alex, he was still focused on driving to the climate control center.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted him." Clarke whispered.

"Iota are you sure it's from Slippy?" Lazarus asked.

"Let me trace it." Iota said pressing a few buttons. "It's from the dropship, on a hacked server."

"How do you know it's hacked?" Lazarus asked

"The server name doesn't show up, the only way you can do that is from a hacked computer." Iota responded.

"I say we take him down, stop the damage before it gets worse." Clarke whispered.

"Let's not get hasty, it could be possibly be one of Bowmans people who really has hijacked the dropship and the _Atlantis._" Jack said, everyone reluctantly agreed.

* * *

**A/N: Well how is the story? Please Rate and Review. **


	15. Mission 2 Pt 2: Cold Hearted Betrayal

The climate control center slowly came into view, it's massive silhouette punched through the snow and ice. It was so much bigger, so much more powerful than the original. Bowman knew his machines, shutting this down was going to be no easy task. Everyone in the truck stocked up on guns, loading packs of ammo into every empty pocket. They had to stop whatever stood between them, and the informant. Even if a whole army of the supramorphs stood in their way, they would fight. But they all knew that Fachina would be a cold grave.

Alex pulled the truck in front of the climate control center. Suddenly, two mechs fired rockets at the truck Alex slammed the pedal so hard, it almost punched through the floor.

"Everyone out, we're under attack!" Alex yelled.

The team rolled out, guns loaded and raised. The only way in the center, was the only way out. This time, not only a big metal door, but large mechs stood between them and the climate control center. The door opened, soldiers in red uniforms flooded into the cold Fachina wilderness.

"Give me some cover fire, I'll try and snipe the pilots!" Clarke yelled to the team.

"You heard the man, get going." Lazarus shouted, everyone split in different directions while Clarke dove into the snow. He was quickly buried and hidden from the mechs.

Alex felt the bullet's sting his flesh, the same drained feeling followed. He needed to rely on some quick movements and long range attacks to get out of this. He pulled a blaster from his belt and hid behind the truck. Quickly, he peeked from cover and fired at the soldiers.

Clarke honed in on the mech's pilot, the snow's weight was becoming unbearable on his back. The sniper sight allinged with the pilot's exposed head. Clarke held his breath and squeezed the trigger. The last thing the pilot saw was a purple streak that seemingly cut through time before punching hole in his face.

_One down, one to go_, Clarke thought setting his sights on the next mech.

Katt dashed around the snow, her cat reflexes helped her dodge while effectively cross the snowy terrain. She fired off the rounds, but they missed by longshots. She was never good with a gun, never. Two soldiers were able to flank her and started shooting her from behind. Now in big trouble, she tried to keep up her front defense while dodging the men behind her. Two screams could be heard, behind her Falco had intervened and killed the soldiers.

"Get over here Katt, we need to get the truck." Falco shouted to her, she ran to him as fast as possible. Soon they were on their way to the truck.

Epsilon and Lazarus barreled out of cover using acrobatic flips and rolls, the soldiers never had a chance to shoot. Finally, they used their offensive attack. Waves of laser bolts streamed in odd patterns. The soldiers focused on one beam, but a faster beam got to them first.

Clarke had aligned his sights with the other mech when somehow it spotted him, it fired a rocket into Clarke's direction. Clarke had no choice but to run. He tried to stand, but the pounds of snow held him down. Clarke had no chance of escape, the rocket was headed straight towards him. He closed his eyes, and waited for the explosive death.

Alex had only a few precious moments to save Clarke from the rocket. Time froze as Alex broke into super run, the rocket moved an inch a minute as Alex ran to it. He grabbed the missle and ran to the mech. Using the missile like a bizarre knife, he stabbed the head into the pilot's cockpit. Things started speeding up as the pilot realized that his own missile was killing him. Alex tensed his body, this was going to be painful. The fire enveloped his body, burning away hair and skin. The explosion propelled him yards away, the snow melted around his body as he landed. Slowly, the flames on his body died and he could feel the healing process work it's magic. It felt like little pinpricks, his skin quickly grew back. New hair stabbed their way through his pores. He stood up, only tattered remains of his thermal suit were burned to him.

Alex turned to the remaining soldiers, with a powerful jump he pounced on one nearly eight feet away from him.

"Fall back!" One of them screamed, the metal door opened with a grind while soldiers slipped under. The team ran straight for the open door, which slowly began to close. Even enemy soldiers were being locked out. In no time, the team had made it's way under the door into the Climate Control Center.

The "room" they stepped in appeared to be a large garage. Designated areas where trucks would go and large carts to load stood placed behind them. The team split up as more soldiers poured in from an elevator.

"Open fire!!" A soldier yelled.

From all ends of the room, lasers blasted towards the group. They all crouched low and headed for cover, they were surrounded. Iota shot one soldier blindly firing a machine gun. The soldier looked dumbstruck as he was struck many times in the chest, then he was silenced by another shot to the head. Other soldiers were barreling from cover, looking for ways to flank the team, which was all too easy for them\.

Alex felt a powerful sting in his back, they had hit him with a dart .Slowly he felt himself weaken, soldiers were showering him with bullets. Alex collapsed, to the surprise of the other teammates. Iota fired a rocket into the group of soldiers, but more and more came.

"Leave him Iota, he's done." Lazarus shouted as he jumped into one of the loading carts. With a shove he was off.

"We can't leave him, there's nothing to stop the others without him." Jack shouted to Fox.

Fox had a difficult decision to make, soldiers were already dragging the unconscious body away.

"We have to run, but we won't leave this planet without him." Fox shouted. Jack was silent, he nodded his head then ran to a cart.

Everyone jumped into the carts, things were going to get interesting.

* * *

Wolf held a gun to Slippy's head while Alex drove them to the new dropship that Bowman called in.

"Why are you doing this Alex?" Slippy yelled.

"I'm taking care of orders." Alex answered.

Slippy was totally shocked to find that Alex had betrayed them all. It was a wonder that he made it off of the planet, or maybe he didn't even land on the planet. He fidgeted in Wolf's arms. Wolf only pressed the gun against his head harder, Slippy had no chance of escape as they landed in the dropship hangar. Alex led the group to a large computer room. A gangly young man ran up to them.

"Alright kid, what's the status of our friends on Fachina." Alex asked.

"They've managed to punch through the transport areas and are using the minecarts to penetrate the facility." The kid responded, Slippy sighed with relief.

"Hmph, I'd thought they'd be smarter than that, that's a one way trip to the crystalization chamber." Panther said.

* * *

"What the hell is that!?" Lucy screamed. They had been using the mine carts for only about a minute and were already starting to run into trouble.

"It's where we get off, see the catwalks over there, we need to jump once the cars slow down." Lazarus responded.

"Yeah, but what is it?" Lucy asked again.

"It's a crystallization chamber, where special minerals are super heated and compacted into blaster rounds." Falco explained. Suddenly, they felt a jerk in the mine carts.

"Here's our chance, jump!" Lazarus shouted, one by one they jumped onto the catwalks as the carts emptied themselves into the chamber.

"We need to press on, first we should find out where we are exactly." Lazarus whispered.

* * *

"No they're very smart Caroso, the carts slow down so the soldiers can check the minerals. I'm guessing they're pretty close to the generator by now." The kid said to Panther.

"In that case I'd better get going, set up a drop pod, I'm landing on the planet." Alex said, the kid hurried over to the console and pressed a few buttons.

"Alright, it should be ready just in the next room." The kid replied.

"Good, O'donnel, I want you to take the frog to the holding cells. Bowman needs him for something special later." Alex said to Wolf, who in turn nodded his head and left the room. Alex walked out of the door and to the drop pod.

* * *

The team on the planet had split into three teams, one team was looking for Alex, another was looking for the meeting and the last one was going to change the climate control center's settings. Iota finally separated from Lazarus's team and went with Kursed, Jack and Clarke, they were looking for Alex. Lazarus and Epsilon were going to search for the control room and the rest were looking for the meeting.

After the teams had parted ways in search of their objectives, they were now isolated from eachother. Radio contact was out of the question, if any calls were intercepted, things would go from worse to worst.

Iota led the team down a long stretch of hallway, a map of the center was located on the wall. No surprise, Bowman had a whole millitary set up on the planet. Alex was probably located in the holding cells below the facility. Iota explained the plan and they were off.

Meanwhile, Falco led his group to a briefing room, located at the top floor, right next to Bowman's quarters in the building. It was going to be fairly easy to reach the top, they had already began their ascent using one of the elevators. Things got difficult after a few minutes passed.

"Attention, all elevators will be offline, it is believed that intruders are located in one, please be patient as we scan the elevators." A voice called over the intercom.

The elevator shutdown and Falco and his team was trapped. A bright light flashed everyone in the elevator and an alarm sounded.

"Intruders found in elevator 2A. Shoot to kill." The same voice called.

Falco stumbled as he felt a jerk in the elevator, the elevator was slowly descending now. They had been dropped where they had came in, it would be only seconds before they would come face to face with a group of guards ready to kill.

"Quick, up the elevator shaft!" Lucy said shooting the hatch leading outside of the elevator. She jumped up, grabbed on, and climbed through.

Falco was next, then Katt climbed through, they were going to climb to the next floor manually.

* * *

"Epsilon, watch you tail, we've got'em coming on all sides." Lazarus shouted crouching and running, guards were cutting them off at every open hallway. Epsilon pivoted and saw a large squad of guards coming his way.

He unloaded his machine gun into the group, most shots missed, but it stopped them in their tracks. Epsilon ran to a door near him and kicked it open.

"Lazarus, in here!" He shouted as he ran inside.

They had found their way into an office, surprised workers held their hands up or hid under their desks. The duo ran through the room and exited through another door, it lead them straight into the hallway behind the guards. Epsilon threw a grenade at the group of unsuspecting guards and blew them away. The noise, smoke, and confusion gave them the perfect get away.

* * *

"Alex, as you already know, we have intruders, they must be stopped at all costs. I have back up for you waiting in the garage of the building, Bowman out." Bowman ordered. Alex put away the communicator and walked into the climate control center. Everything around him was mass chaos. Guards running left and right, commands being shouted. Alex pulled out the communicator and called Bowman.

"Bowman, this is my backup?" Alex asked.

"Of course not, she should be meeting you shortly." Bowman replied.

"She?" Alex asked.

* * *

Kursed walked nervously among the holding cells, some of the people inside didn't look anything like people. Most of them looked like corpses, some were missing limbs or parts of their face.

"What kind freakshow is Bowman running down here?" Iota asked out loud.

"They're POW's and political prisoners, they've been tortured countless times for no apparent reason other than their existence." Kursed replied, she had been reading their minds.

Suddenly, a choking noise could be heard at the end of the row. The team raised their guns and walked forward. A guard lay dead on the ground, his neck had been broken. The killer saw the team and held his hands up.

"You damn hacks! Should've known he had back up." The familiar voice whispered under his breath.

"Bill is that you?" Iota asked squinting in the bad light, then froze, no one called Sgt. William Gray "Bill" unless you've known him for a very long time. Fox knew Bill, but Iota wasn't supposed to.

"What the? It can't be." Bill said shaking his head.

"It can't be the General's team sent here to rescue you?" Clarke asked confused.

"I can believe that, but…never mind." Bill said.

"Where's the rest of your team Bil- er, Sgt. Gray?" Iota asked.

"Dead, all of them, I was next if I didn't try this crazy escape plan." He replied.

"That's sad to hear Sarge." Iota said.

"Bowman is turning out to be much more sick and twisted than his grandfather." Bill replied. "Where's the rest of your team?"

"You're weren't the only thing we came for, Alex is also down here, along with a special meeting going on somewhere in the building." Kursed answered.

"Alex? How'd they bring him down?" Bill asked.

"We still don't know Sarge, it might be some chemical developed from testing." Iota said.

Heavy clanks could be heard from down the hallway, something big was coming.

"Crap, it's the Warden." Bill whispered.

* * *

"You're not quite the backup I expected." Alex said looking over the young feline with black fur, he felt odd.

"Keep it in your pants, we need to get on with this." The feline hissed. Alex was confused by the comment.

"Alright, I've got trackers placed on all of them, we have soldiers on their positions as we speak, but that's only to hold them down. Our job is to finish them, Bowman doesn't care how." The woman continued, she quickly hurried off.

"Feisty isn't she?" Bowman sneered.

"Who is she exactly?" Alex asked.

"We don't know exactly, she says her name is Sasha. We've kept direct contact with her for the past two days, she's helped form this ingenious plan." Bowman answered.

* * *

Lucy held on for dear life, dim lights in the elevator shaft only gave her a few precious glimpses of the long elevator wire she held onto. She was terrified of heights, but falling in the dark, when the bottom was invisible, was some other horror entirely.

Falco felt the wire shake uncontrollably, he thought it was about to break. Until he looked down. Lucy was shaking like a leaf.

"Hang in down there, we're almost to the next floor and then we can get off." Falco said, but Lucy didn't stop trembling.

Falco kept climbing until he saw the door to the next floor, chatter could be heard on the other side. When Falco climbed closer to the door, the chatter stopped and the familiar sound of guns clicking on was heard.

"Slide down everyone, this is going to be change of pace." Falco said while pulling out a sensor mine, he stuck it onto the door and slid down. "On the count of three I'm going to activate the bomb, I want you to grab the counter weight and hold on, jump when I say."

Lucy adjusted her self so that she was holding onto the rope supporting the counter weight, she closed her eyes and waited for the ride.

"Three…two…one." Falco shouted, he shot the mine and an explosion blew away the door and the rope.

The team felt themselves shooting upwards, waiting for Falco's signal.

"Now!!" He shouted as soon as the door came into view.

They all jumped at once, landing in the hallway where the explosion sruck. Guards had been thrown aside while others had been blown to pieces. Falco shot the guards that were still alive and commanded the team to move to the emergency stairs a few rooms ahead of them.

* * *

Lazarus wondered how the soldiers could possibly stay on his trail for so long, they knew exactly where he and Epsilon hid or ran. It was impossible to escape, they just kept shooting. Leaving a trail of bodies to follow.

Epsilon was running out of breath, they did not stop once for at least two hours. Not only were they running, they were hecticly searching for the computer room that controlled the facility. Fortunately they were getting closer, according the maps at least. The door marked computer room could be seen just a few yards ahead, things were looking up for them, until they saw the supramorph coming for them at the end of the hall.

* * *

"Stay low and try your hardest not to make a sound." Bill whispered quickly.

They all their heads, whoever this warden was, he was a hell of a monster. It's footsteps sounded like someone was pounding the metal with a sledge hammer. Iota swore he heard deep, heavy breathing come from only a few feet away. Iota nearly jumped out of his skin when Jack accidentally bumped into him. Quickly regaining his composure, he slowly walked forward with Bill.

They moved inch after inch, and with every inch, a loud bang could be heard very close by. It seemed to be playing with them, waiting to crush them once it was bored again. Kursed tried to read the mind of the monster but it's thoughts were blank, just a black void.

Bill didn't know what to think, he had only seen the Warden's victims. Bloody, mangled, piles of blood and guts left in the middle of the hallways. Once they were people trying to escape, just like him.

The noises pushed closer and closer to them, the Warden was bored. Clarke quickly turned around to get a glimpse at the biggest creature he had ever seen. Jack immediately recognized it as a supramorph, but what had they done to it? With no time to think, they ran.

It snorted and ran after them, felt like being chased by a rolling boulder. The creature quickly gained momentum and went faster and faster as they went. Clarke tripped and immediately felt like a truck hit him. His limp body went flying across the halls, prisoners watched from their cells with interest. The monster had stopped in it's tracks, and roared. A victory roar, the last sound most of it's victims ever heard.

A red bolt of energy flew across the hall and straight at the Warden's head. The top half of the head blew away and the rest of it fell forward. Clarke put away his gun and looked at his kill, with a smirk he had walked away with last laugh.

"It's not dead yet!" Jack yelled running. The rest followed, they all knew he was right.

"I don't think you're going anywhere old man." Alex said to Lazarus who had stopped just a few feet in front of him.

Epsilon took aim and fired a p-rifle shot at Alex's head, the blue bullet pierced his brain and knocked him unconscious for the moment. Epsilon and Lazarus ran forward, but Epsilon was stopped in his tracks. He didn't even have time to think before a sword punched through his chest.

"Nice shot." Sasha said with a smile on her face, she wrenched the sword out of his body.

Epsilon turned around and didn't believe what he saw. He closed his eyes and collapsed in betrayal and defeat.

Lazarus turned to face his opponent, but Alex had gotten back up and he punched Lazarus in the chest. Lazarus flew a few feet back, but recovered and landed on both feet. He pulled out two swords of his own slashed at Alex. He dodged, but not quick enough. The diamond edged sword swiped a bone deep cut straight down his chest.

Sasha struck at Lazarus, but he used his other blade to counter the attack. Sasah's sword clashed with Lazarus's. He kicked the stunned girl backwards and impaled Alex with both swords. It didn't seem to do anything as Alex grabbed Lazarus by the neck and extended his claws. Lazarus wrenched the swords upwards and cut off both of Alex's arms. Alex fell backwards while Sasha swiped at Lazarus again, this time with more force.

Lazarus blocked the attack, but her blade shattered the sword. Her blade was made of something much more stronger than diamonds. Lazarus jabbed at her with the broken blade, Sasha jumped back and Lazarus brought down his sword onto her. The tip of the sword grazed the side of her shoulder, leaving a gash. Sasha screamed as Lazarus lunged at her, it was too late to realize he had made a mistake.

Time didn't move as Sasha quickly pulled her sword up, just as Lazarus came down on her. She tilted her head to the left, Lazarus missed and was impaled on her sword.

"I always knew I could beat you Lazarus, you were always so weak." Sasha laughed holding a surprised Lazarus in place.

"Who are you?" Lazarus asked.

"Don't you recognize me?" She said with a smirk. Lazarus's eyes widened when he finally realized who this young woman was.

"Please, don't do this." Lazarus pleaded.

Lazarus winced as Sasha slowly pulled the blade out of him. Lazarus looked at the young woman, he had acted as a father and a mentor for her. For so many long years, and it was all a lie. She held the sword with two hands and swung hard. Lazarus's head flew off and landed a few feet away from the body.

"Goodbye Lazarus." Theta whispered.

Alex's eyes squinted with pain, thick red liquid was being drawn from his head. It wasn't blood, it was too thin. Alex's eyes shot open when he realized that this was the mutagen that the Wraith pumped into him. Bowman was harvesting it from his body for malicious purposes.

Bowman watched from an observation window as a soldier was forced into the room. The soldier was visibly shaken and didn't want to go anywhere near Alex.

"Good morning Alex, hope you've slept well." Bowman taunted.

"What the hell is going on Bowman." Alex snapped.

"Very frank aren't we, well if you really must know, you've proven to be much more useful than I thought before." Bowman said. "I still can't make a perfect specimen of supramorph, such as yourself, but I can make something using a special gland in your brain."

Alex looked at the soldier who was being forced onto an operating table and being strapped down. Alex realized that they were going to inject the guy with his mutagen!

"Bowman you're insane, I can't even control the stuff." Alex shouted, the solider looked at Alex with terror in his eyes.

"Yes, I'm so glad you came to us, your mutagen is so much more devloped than the others, while it has changed a supramorph, we've only had it happen once." Bowman said

The soldiers finished strapping down their struggling comrade and grabbed a beaker filled with mutagen. The drew some of the liquid out with a needle and located a vain in the soldier's arm. Alex tried to break free, but his body couldn't do it.

"Nice try, but we have a little chemical that we invented after many tests on your brothers, I think it works nicely." Bowman laughed.

Alex could only sit and watch as the soliders following Bowman prepared to unleash hell. The one with the needle bent over and injected the stuggling soldier with the mutagen. The soldier strapped to the table stopped moving for a few seconds.

Suddenly the soldier started screaming in pain and begain squirming like he had electricity passing through him. The soldiers around him ran to the door, but Bowman kept the door locked. Alex could see the soldier thicken out with growing muscles, the man had already grown inches taller. Alex looked at the screaming man, his voice changing to some sort of animalistic roar. The soldier had already grown twice his original size before bursting the straps holding him down. Alex looked over at the panicked soldiers who had been pounding the door.

The man had completely transformed almost two minutes later. This monster was at least eight feet tall, it's muscles looked like they could break steal just by touching it. Bowman had succeeded in creating a monster of his own.

"Now let's see what it can do, kill those two soldiers." Bowman ordered.

The monster charged at the men and tore them to pieces before they even had a chance to scream. Alex cringed as Bowman sadistically laughed, he was definitely enjoying this.

"Fool, mortal bodies cannot handle such power." A familiar voice hissed from the back of Alex's head. The wraith climbed out of Alex's body and over to the monster. Alex stared in shock as the wraith held out it's hand and the beast stopped moving.

"Alex, what are you doing!?" Bowman shouted, for the first time worried. Alex honestly didn't know.

"You want power, I'll give it to you!" The Wraith screamed.

The mutagen had a very unpleasant side effect with the Wraith present. Blood started coming from the creatures eyeballs and nostrils as it fell down on it's knees. Alex saw both eyeballs pop out as blood spewed from the eye sockets. Skin on the monster began deteriorating, an orangish colored liquid started coming from infectious wounds forming on the skin.

Bowman watched his creation melt into a puddle of mush. It looked like something out of a horror movie. The only thing left was the bones of the monster, which were quickly starting to melt as well.

"Well I didn't count on that Alex, looks like it's back to the drawing board." Bowman said through gritted teeth.

* * *

More and more soliders followed Lucy up the stairs, some were coming down while others were following them up. They would be trapped if they didn't get off on the next floor. Falco grabbed the next door he could get his hands on, the door wouldn't budge. He cussed and pulled out his gun.

"Lucy, cover the bottom of the stairs with this chain gun, I'll hold off the guys coming down on us. Katt, get to work on that door." Falco ordered, instantly they had split into their tasks.

Falco was worried his leg would malfunction from the hits it was taking, but to his relief the leg held together. Lucy had the advantage of standing over the soldiers, the chain gun made short work of them. Katt was at work opening the door.

The door was held shut by magnetic locks activated by the alarm. Problem is, she needed to keep the doors power on as well as turn of the magnet. The magnet and door's power shared the same circuit, meaning she had to somehow turn off the alarm. She slapped her head, maybe she could get another team in the base to help. She randomly called Kursed.

"Kursed, are you there? We need help here." Katt asked.

"Katt! What are you doing Lazarus said no calls." Kursed said.

"Yeah, well we've been found out. An alarm's been triggered in the facility and we're trapped in a stairwell." Katt said.

"Okay, what do you need us to do?" Kursed asked.

"I need you to take out the alarm system without shutting down the power, I think you can temporarily shut down the alarm from an alarm console, know where any of those are?" Katt asked.

"Yeah, there's one pretty close by, I'll get to work on it." Kursed answered.

"Okay, Theta out." Theta said, she joined her commrades and started shooting with Falco.

* * *

Kursed turned off her communicator and stopped. Jack grabbed her and tried to get her to run again. She threw him off and walked to the alarm console.

"What the hell are you doing? We'll have that warden on our tail any second now." Jack said exasperhated.

"I've got to turn off the alarms, are you any good with computers?" Kursed asked.

"Yeah a little, but hacking an alarm is going to be tough" Jack answered

"Then let's get to work." Kursed said prying open the case concealing the console's wires.

Jack pushed her aside and stared working on the alarm, he never had to hack a computer before. He knew how, but he only tried a few times when he was in highschool. Just for fun, this was life or death now.

"Guy's it's coming!" Clarke said running up to the rest of the group.

"Well hold'em off for now, I'm almost done!" Jack shouted. Clarke rolled his eyes and aimed his gun down the cell blocks.

The monster emmerged a within a few moments, its head had completely healed. Clarke shot at the monster again. The beast blocked the strike with a quick movement of it's arm. The arm absorbed the shot and the would healed almost instantly.

Iota pulled out a machine gun and concentrated his fire on the chest. The creature took tons of hits but that didn't stop it from moving. Finally Iota threw the machine gun aside and charged a blaster shot before firing it at the Warden's chest. It lowered it's arms as it took the bullet, Clarke reacted instantly. The purple sniping bullet blew off the the entire head this time.

"Hurry up, this monster isn't going to stay down for long!" Iota yelled.

* * *

Katt was starting to panic, they had little time to fight off the hundereds of guards coming down on them. They would be dead if Kursed didn't get that alarm turned off. Lucy yelped as a bullet shot through her arm, Falco turned around to help, but took a shot in the back of the shoulder. Katt had no time to think, her and everyone around her was going to die.

Finally, the alarm shut down and the door opened. Everyone limped into the hallway, they needed to find a place to take care of wounds. Falco saw an open door just upahead, he grabbed Lucy and ran through with her. Katt quickly followed them in, she shut and sealed the door behind them.

Falco sat down and took a deep breath, it was over for the time being. Katt pulled out a first-aid kit and walked to Falco. The shot in his back burned deep, but at least it didn't cut into the vital organs. She applied a special bio gel and a surgical gauze with bandages.

Lucy's wound was more complitcated, a sniper bullet shot her arm, meaning it went all the way through. Katt could see through the arm, Lucy needed actual medical attention for this wound. Katt applied pain killers and some of the bio gel just to tide her over and covered it up with gauze wraping for protection. Katt herself had only taken a shot in the foot as they escaped the stairwell, while it stung, it wasn't very serious. It just took a little of the miracle gel and she was fine.

They all jumped when something pounded the door behind them. A huge dent poked forward into the room, another bang and the door flew forward. In the door way stood a supramorph ready to attack. Katt shot at it, but it didn't stall it at all. Falco finally shot it with a charged blaster shot and the supramorph stumbled a little. Katt took the chance to steady her aim and fire.

Meanwhile, a black furred feline entered the room with sword in one hand and a gun in the other. She dashed straight towards Lucy with the gun raised. Lucy shot at the woman, who quickly put the sword in front of her to block the bullet. Lucy stood up, took a rifle butt and pounded it into the woman's stomach.

The jumped back in surprise while Lucy used her good arm to deliver a swing with the rifle. Her swing connected with her attacker's head sending her stunned to the side. Lucy picked up the feline's gun and shot at the supramorph, which Katt was desperately trying to dodge. Lucy concentrated her fire at the monster's head, combined with Katt's and Falco's gunfire. The head on the monster blew away, it fell to the ground knocked out for the moment.

Sasha stood up and held her sword up, she walked over to Lucy with the sword in her hand. Sasha prepared to stab Lucy in the back, but Katt had interupted.

"Stay away from her!" Katt shouted.

Katt socked Sasha in the head, she stumbled backwards a few inches before Katt kicked her in the chest. Sasha fell to the ground with the wind knocked out of her. The team turned and ran out of the room, leaving the stunned foes in the room.

* * *

Alex watched Bowman leave the observatory window, leaving him strapped down with the chemicals pumping into him. They made him feel weak and tired, his heart rate slowed and his eye lids refused to stay open. Alone and defeated Alex closed his eyes and drifted beyond reality.

Time and space paused for a moment as Alex fell into a dark, melancholy medow. Illuminated only by a full moon and his only company was a cloaked figure and a old and rotten tree. The person walked to Alex and stroked his cheek, beneath the hood revealed a woman.

"It is too early for you to be here Alex." She said. Alex looked at her, she looked like someone he knew.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"I am the beginning of this terror. Destruction and hell has been released into your mortal world, all because of me." The woman said with hurt in her voice. Alex looked at her for a moment longer, an odd otherworldy thought entered his mind. A thought of happiness and compassion .

"Sophie…" Alex said with a smile. He was totally unaware he had said anything at all.

"You are so much like him aren't you. But hurry now, escape from this land. Your friends are in danger, already one has slipped away." Sophie said with urgency.

Alex looked around and saw Lazarus walking past the dead tree among many other people in a dark procession.

"Lazarus!" Alex yelled. "What's wrong with him?" Alex turned and asked.

"He has left your world and come to the next, but only partially. Some thing still needs to be done for himm, and he must wait for the time of redemption." Sophie responded.

"No, this can't be possible, Lazarus can't die yet, we need him, Iota needs him." Alex cried.

"All things can come unexpectedly Alex, you must know this." Sophia said to Alex.

"Wait, if I'm here, then I must be dead to, right?" Alex said with shock in his voice.

"Yes you are dead, but the gates remain open for you. You must go and help your friends, their life depends on it." Sophie commanded Alex, she pointed to the tree. Within it's thick dead trunk, a golden doorway stood. Alex walked through into a pool of pure light. He took a deep breath and he was thrust back into his body.

Alex woke up startled, he had no idea if the dream he had was real or not. What he did know is that he had to get out, and like it or not, only one person could help him. Alex searched deep in his mind for the Wraith. Out of nowhere, the dark figure appeared.

"This is a first, you summon me." It said with amusement.

"Yes Wraith, I need your help, this chemical is destroying my body." Alex explained.

"We can fix that easy can't we? Hold still Alex, just embrace this moment. Soon, very soon, we shall see things with the same eye." The Wraith stabbed Alex with its claws and filled his body with the red mutagen.

Alex screamed on the inside, the liquid burned his vains as he shifted on the table. He could feel the burning sensation permeate all layers of his body. Braking, bending, and changing everything.

When Alex regained his composure, he had ripped himself off of the table and was standing on his hands and knees. He stood up, his head stung with a migraine. The Wraith had certainly done it's job, the chemical had no effect whatsoever on his body now. But Alex was afraid of what else the Wraith changed. A door swung open in the observation room and a person walked in.

* * *

Epsilon opened his eyes to find that he was still in the hallway in front of the computer room. Theta and Alex had left him to die, he looked around and jumped at the sight of Lazarus's disembodied head laying face up next to him. Epsilon winced, the sword luckily missed his hear and lungs by some miracle, it only went through his shoulder. Well still he was in a bad situation.

He had been unconcsious for at least five minutes, and that was too long. Light headed and bleeding, Epsilon stood up and pulled out his field surgeon pack. Something that was very useful on missions like these. With record time and expert skill, he was able to patch up the wound and ease the pain.

The diamond sword sat next to Lazarus's body, Epsilon lifted the sword and held forward. He knew that his next calling was to lead Lazarus's team. As the longest pupil of Lazarus, Epsilon was heir to this position.

A prayer was said for Lazarus, while Epsilon left to finish his job. Bringing so many other people back was going to be a hard task, but for now, the climate control center was all that mattered. With a slash of the diamond sword, he sliced a hole in the locked metal door leading into the control room.

Surprised gaurds pulled out guns and shot at Epsilon. Epsilon ran to one and cut him in half while another two tried to hit him. Epsilon ran to them and with a quick slice, both gaurds had been hacked in two. The control panel was now his for the taking. With a little bit of hacking skills, he cut into the mainframe and reversed the climate control center's power. Instantly, clouds disappered and revealed a starry night sky.

* * *

**A/N: **Writer's block is such an evil thing, so evil it killed Lazarus! But his past isn't dead yet, what will this death trigger in our characters, and why would Theta betray them all? Find out next time in... forget it, but hope you enjoyed this chapter, please rate and review, Happy (sad) reading.


	16. Mission 2 Pt 3: Bloody Snow

**Author's Note: Sorry I haven't done anything in forever, but I just moved to my brand new house and I got the internet up and running just yesterday. So to make up for it, I made a huge chapter. This is my longest yet with over 14,000 words, so sit tight and enjoy the ride**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Star Fox, but one can wish**

* * *

Peppy put his head in his hands, the situation was almost hopeless. The only sign that any team member survived was that the atmosphere cleared. Still they had the problem with the hostage situation. Slippy was being held aboard a drop ship and the demands were if anyone enetered the planet's atmosphere, he would die. Bowman was an evil, sadistic creature, but he was a genius. Always had plan B should anything go wrong. Peppy heard his radio go off, he slowly reached and answered.

"Hello?" He asked.

"Sir, it's about the situation on Fachina." A soldier said trying to keep calm.

"What's happened now?" Peppy asked frustrated.

"The demands have gotten worse, if our patrols don't leave, he's dead." The soldier replied.

"Any good news?" Peppy said sarcastically.

"Actually, there is, we might be able to slip a small team onto the drop ship in the confusion, but the risk is very high. We just need your order sir." The soldier replied.

Peppy paused and thought for a moment, this could screw up so bad. But what was the point? They were dead in almost all sides of the situation, this could be successful.

"Do it." Peppy said.

* * *

Alex hoisted himself up as the new person entered the room.

"Looks like I was right Sasha, he's made it out of the chem chair." Alex2 hissed.

Alex raised his claws and unleashed the inner demon. Sasha steppd back a few steps while Alex2 walked closer.

"Somebody's brave, Sasha, go and take care of the rest of this pathetic team, this one's all mine." Alex2 snarled. Sasha didn't even speak as she ran.

"Who's the girl?" Alex asked as he crouched in pounce position.

"A friend." Alex2 said taking the same position.

Alex lunged at Alex2, Alex2 braced himself for the blow and blocked the first attack only to be hit by Alex's swipe. Fresh blood dribbled down Alex2's armor. Alex then grabbed his brother and threw him into a wall. Smashing a huge hole straight in the middle.

Alex jumped through the hole while Alex2 quickly recovered. The supramorph ran up to his brother and threw a punch. Alex ducked but Alex2 kneed him in the face. Now stunned, Alex2 unleashed a flurry of slashes into Alex. Alex grabbed his attacker's arm and snapped the elbow outwards. A bone poked out while Alex stabbed his brother in the stomach and smashed his head against the wall.

The heavily injured supramorph turned around and used his good arm to stab Alex in the chest. He lifted Alex and threw him out of a large window near the hallway. Glass shattered as Alex flew down about a floor before digging his claws into a wall. He looked down, he was close to the roof of the center, while the ground was a vast white ocean.

Like a spider, Alex crawled up the wall, only to find Alex2 crawling down to meet him. His broken arm had already mended itself. Alex jumped upwards at Alex2 and grabbed onto him. Alex2 threw Alex upwards onto the roof, Alex stood up and faced his brother.

* * *

Kursed ran for her life while the Warden singled her out, it had successfully led them into an intricate trap that had them all seperated within the labryinth. She turned only to shoot the monster, which only made it run faster.

The maze of cells was dizzying, every cell looked the same, she had gone so deep into the holding chambers that she had made it to a point where the cells weren't even labeled anymore.

Stagnant air moved in and out of her lungs while she ran. The smell of urine and rotting meat stung her eyes as she made her way to the toture chambers. Several cubicles lined the walls, each one had a victim with a guard cutting and stabbing them. Kursed saw guards coming out of their cells. They were covered in some combination of guts and vomit.

They held their weapons up as she ran in their direction. She shot at them with no mercy, but one had slipped past her and grabbed her by the neck. Kursed screamed for help as he punched her and dragged her to a special cell designated for people that Bowman hated the most.

* * *

At last the Falco and his team had found the meeting room, they were not to let anyone leave that room alive. Katt used a special cable that slid under the door to get a look. Inside was a bunch of people talking, a figure stood infront of the room that perfectly matched the description of Daren Harvey.

Lucy quickly set up a makeshift breaching charge and blew off the door. The team filed in and shot at all of the people in the room. The smoke cleared and piles of fluff and the smell of burning wax filled the room. Falco, Katt, and Lucy had destroyed a bunch of well crafted puppets. They asked the question.

"What was going on?"

Suddenly, a heavy steel door slid in place of the old one and sealed the team in the room. Pipes sprung from the walls and released an odorless blue gas.

"Well Star Falco, how do you like the trap? I guess I should inform you that the blue gas is a highly toxic hallucinagen that will make you relive your worst memories while shutting down your brain. I call it Lunite, my invention of course…" Bowman's voice called over a hidden speaker.

"This guy just goes on and on doesn't he?" Falco choked, the gas was taking effect.

"We need to get out of here some how, there's got to be a way to get that door open." Lucy wheezed. "Mother!" Lucy cried and fell to the ground crying.

"I'll try and turn off the power, he needs it to pump it all the way to here doesn't he." Katt said, the gas seemed to have no effect on her.

"Then do it quick, I can see my dad with his whip." Falco said with fear, he was looking across from the room at a wall.

Katt was once again pressured to save them again, fortunately the gas had no effect on her. Why? She didn't care she needed to save her friends. She took a small hammer from her pack and started smashing the walls around the pipes, there had to be wires leading to them from somewhere.

* * *

Iota walked around the cells, the Warden wasn't chasing anymore, to his relief. But he was seperated in a place he had no idea how to get through. Prisioners just stared at him with dull cow eyes, he had gone pretty far down the blocks, maybe these guys had been here the longest.

"Help me! Someone, anyone, please help me." A voice cried from deep within his mind. He closed his eyes confused when he saw a strange place that smelled like a public restroom with a monitor with Bowman's face stared down at him.

When he opened his eyes again, he started running, he didn't know where, but he needed start somewhere. Iota could still hear her cries, each minute they became more and more desperate.

It seemed like hours as he was driven to insanity, not only by her cries, but by the thought of his lost chance. Why hadn't he told her he loved her? Just one last time, to clear his mind. Randomly Carlisle's voice seeped into his insanity. _"I love it when they scream for help, and the person they call for doesn't come. They're a lot easier after that."_ His sickening voice said.

"Calm down Fox, you can make it." Another voice rung through his mind, a voice that stood above all others. It was his dad.

"Dad!" Was his only word.

"Listen to me Fox, I won't let you leave her, she needs you and you need her. Let me guide you on the right path." An apparation of his father appeared out of the depths of the dark cell blocks. Now he really had gone insane, but he had no other choice. He followed the ghost of his father down the winding hallways of the holding cells.

* * *

A guard sat bored out of his mind in the drop ship hangar. Nothing interesting happened on a drop ship. He wanted to be down at the climate control center to fight the "supramorph" that everyone talked about.

It was probably all hype, nothing too serious right? They're probably just dangerous in numbers, that's why Bowman need's like six of them at a time. He sighed and looked over at one other guard that patrolled the room.

The guy stopped for a second to yawn before he was pulled into a shadow. Shocked, the remaining guard slowly walked over to the place the man disappeared. A shuffling noise came from the shadow, the guard pulled his gun out and aimed. He stepped closer and closer, right in front of him was the body of the other soldier. The jugular had been sliced open by a knife.

The guard turned to run for help, but when he pivoted around. He felt something grab his neck and pull him to the side. It was the killer! The knife's cold blade stroked his neck, the guard tried to keep the blade off. He was able to escape the hold and start running, but it was all in vain. A sharp pain shot up his back and he fell to the ground, he couldn't move at all. The killer threw a knife at his spine, he was paralyzed.

A shadow slowly ecplisped the dim light illuminating the room. The knife was pulled out of his back and the body was turned over. Cold metal cut deep in his neck, the last sight the guard had of the living world, was a blood stained knife.

* * *

Katt tried to block out the screams of her friends, it was too much to bear. She needed to shut off the gas, hopefully the effects weren't permanent. She ran to a pipe and pounded it, the metal sealed on top of itself and the gas was stuck in the pipe. There was still more pipes to deal, some were difficult to reach, but using the table in the false meeting room she managed to reach the celling.

Soon there was no more gas in the room, for the moment. Somewhere else in the facility, pressure was building to the bursting point. Katt ran to Lucy to see if she was all right, the lunite's effect had quickly worn off. She was covered in sweat and was rapidly breathing, almost like one waking from a nightmare. Falco was in similar condition, except he looked like he was in physical pain.

"I can't believe my old man can hit so hard." Falco said clutching his ribs.

"We still need to get out of here, we're locked in." She said.

"Call someone in the facility, they could help." Falco said, Katt smacked herself on the head.

* * *

Fox ran down the long hallways focused on his father. Krystal's screams had died down to a whimper, she was giving up. This only made him run faster, he wasn't going to let her go again.

Eventually there was a change of scenery, not a very good one though. Instead of cells, cubicles lined the walls, with evil men inside toturing innocent people. Fox snuck past the people who were having too much fun killing to see him. Fox's father led him further to a seperated area, nothing was there, no cubicles or anything, just a door.

"Come son, there is no time to waste." James said. "She is in here, what happens next is up to you." Fox nodded and shot the lock on the door.

With a whoosh, the door opened and inside was a tall guard with a mask on cutting Krystal with a jagged knife. On the other end of the room, Bowman watched with a look of pleasure and ecstacy, until he noticed Fox.

Fox pulled out his blaster and shot the T.V. monitor. He turned to the toture man, but it was too late. The guard slashed at Fox with the jagged knife and knocked the blaster out of his hand. Fox kicked the man in the head sending him stumbling backwards. Fox bent over picked up a knife lined with barbs and stabbed the guard in the head. The guard screamed and lunged at Fox, he wasn't going down easy.

Fox kneed the man in the stomach and pulled out his shock clubs. He brought a crushing blow onto the guards head and sent him to the ground. The man rolled out of the way and threw his knife at Fox. He dodged, but the man was already an inch away from his face. Fox swiped at the man, but he ducked and tackled Fox to the ground, knocking the shock clubs out of his hand.

The man grabbed a drill and tried to put into Fox's brain. Fox grabbed the man's arms and held him back. With as much strength he could muster, Fox pushed the knife even deeper into the mans face. Yet he still continued, Fox wrenched the knife out, bringing out pieces of the guards face. Somehow he still didn't go down, but at least Fox had a weapon.

He took the knife and sliced at the man's wrist. Fox started sawing the guards arm off, all while still trying to keep the drill away. Blood dripped onto Fox's face as he cut the guards veins and to the bone until finally going all the way through. With only one arm, the guard had a disadvantage against Fox. Fox used all of his strength to shove the man off of him, finally it worked.

Fox threw the man aside and looked at the toture tools. One tool looked ike a crude pair of hedge trimmers. Fox lifted it up and opened it. He kneeled over to the guard on the ground and closed the blades around the man's throat.

He coughed and gagged, even now he tried to fight, but Fox squeezed harder. Insane amounts of blood dripped from the jugular, but still the man continued to fight. Finally, a snap was heard and the hedge clippers closed all the way. The man's head rolled off of the lifeless body which collapsed on it's side, Fox had won.

Krystal sat shaking in the chair, she had been strapped down and slowly cut in many different places. Fox bent over and looked her in the eyes.

"Thank you." She cried, tears streaming down her face.

"It's okay, calm down." Fox hugged her. Krystal looked up at Fox.

"You look too much like him Iota." She said, Fox wondered if it was out of insanity.

"Like who?" Fox asked.

"Like Fox." She smiled. Fox took a deep breath, already he almost lost her twice. He needed to tell her, even if she killed him.

"It's because I am Krystal." Fox said to her. Krystal looked up at Fox, he was looking down at her smiling sheepishly.

"No way, Fox is dead, you can't be him." She shook her head in disbelief.

"Yes I am, I am Fox McCloud, and before anything else happens, I want to tell you that I love you, I always have." Fox kissed her on the cheek.

Krystal looked up at him with shock in her eyes, this was just too much. She closed her eyes for a moment and thought about all the things she's been through. Fox was here now, what happens next? Krystal opened her eyes and slapped Fox.

"What the!" Fox shouted in surprise.

"I told you that was coming." She stood up and embraced Fox. He could only hold her back.

* * *

The repetetive cell blocks just carried on for what seemed like miles, Jack had no idea how guards got prisoners down here and then got themselves back out. Maybe they didn't, Bowman's a sadistic bastard, he doesn't care if his soldiers die, he only cares how. Jack watched teams of soldiers randomly get orders that there was a "traitor" in a different group and that they deserved punishment. Jack never saw what happened, he only could hear the screams from where he hid.

As Jack walked he tripped on something, he turned around and saw a corpse, the body was still fresh. He wanted to run from the grusome sight, but there something about the corpse.

_Of course! It's the guard Sargent Gray killed. _Jack eagerly thought, he was going to make it out of this maze alive. But what about the others? He tried calling one of his team mates to see if they were alive somewhere, but instead of pulling up one of the others, a grainy picture of a decapitated corpse pulled up.

"Another one of your players have died, and you're next. You're in Hell now, and I'm the devil. There is no escape." A low hissing voice that really could belong to the devil himself threatened over the communictor. He could only guess that it was Bowman speaking, but who was the corpse?

"One of your players" meant that it was one of them, but who? Jack didn't want to believe that one of them died, but it was someone from their team, there was no doubting it. The body had a Lazarus uniform upon closer inspection. Meaning that Iota, Epsilon, or Lazarus have been killed.

Jack felt he could just curl up and die, was he doomed to watch people die? His whole team was going be killed off, all because he wanted redemption. For his wife, for his son, for himself. This had to end, he needed to help them, some how, he could think of something. All he knew was that it wasn't going to happen down here, Jack turned and saw the elevator they used to get down to the holding cells. He stepped inside and pressed ground floor.

* * *

Alex watched as his brother climbed to meet him, he charged his brother with claws ready to slice Alex2 to ribbons. Alex2 stood and quickly dodged, Alex stopped before he nearly toppled over the edge. He turned around and sliced open his brother's chest.

Alex sliced again and again until Alex2's entire chest was an open wound. Blood oozed while the wound slowly heald. Meanwhile Alex2 was wildly striking at Alex. Alex felt little flecks of blood stick to him as his brother punched and missed.

Alex threw in a few punches of his own, but his brother came close to attacking. Finally Alex kicked Alex2 in the kidney and threw a punch at his head. The punch was so hard that it completely obliterated the head. Alex2 fell on his back writhing around like a fish out of water.

Alex watched his brother slowly bleed and collapse, would he be able to heal this? Suddenly, the headless body grabbed Alex's arm. Alex threw a kick but the body grabbed the leg and brought it's elbow on to it. Alex felt like his leg had been crushed by a truck while the bone jutted out of the side. A brain slowly started to form where the head would've been on the body, then a skull and finally flesh formed his brother's head once again.

His brother picked him up and walked over to a generator on top of the roof, with a tear the generator's metal covering was ripped off and a huge amount of heat spewed out. Inside was the plasma powering the generator. Alex was tried to force his way out of his oppenent's grasp, but his brother broke his arm as he tried. The arm healed again, then his brother broke it. The cycle of pain was endless, but he was not going to die yet. Alex focused on rage, he knew it would come to him. Nothing happened, he tried even harder. Still nothing happened.

Alex thought about what passing through the plasma would feel like, just a terrible death to melted alive. Suddenly, Alex felt like his arms were falling apart from the inside out. He looked at his arm and was starting to rot before his eyes. Sticky, tar black liquid started oozing from the finger tips.

Some of the ooze dripped onto Alex2's hand. Who let go with surprise, the spot the ooze touched didn't heal. Alex slashed his brother across the face, taking his left eye out. The black ooze seemed to spread as his brother screamed. He shoved his head in snow covering the roof in a desperate attempt to try and wash it out. When he looked out of the snow, Alex saw not only his eye was missing, but most of the left side of his face. Nothing grew back, the ooze was toxic whatever it was.

Alex2 turned around and jumped off of the roof, Alex looked down to see his brother fall thousands of feet. Alex looked at his hand, the ooze was gone, his arm was back to normal. What was this new mutation?

* * *

Slippy sat in front of a camera tied to a chair with Wolf nudging his head with a gun. Hours passed, but Wolf watched and waited. It was only a matter of time before something screwed up and Slippy was going to die. He was never going to see his wife-to-be Amanda again. This made him angry, why was he just sitting here, not doing anything. He needed to live, he wanted to live. No one was here to save him this time, no Fox, no Falco. For once in his life he needed to take care of himself.

Suddenly, the door opened behind them. Wolf was distracted for just a few seconds, Slippy decided now was the time to act, he shoved the back of the chair into Wolf's stomach. He stood up and the back of his chair smacked Wolf in the bottom of the chin, knocking him to the ground.

At the door was Leon, who had his gun ready to go. Slippy charged at Leon and tackled him to the ground. Slippy stood up and body slammed Leon again and again until he didn't move. He sifted around in Leon's pockets for a knife, he always carried a knife. Eventually he found a switch blade in Leon's back pocket.

Carefully manuvering the switch blade with his hands, the blade would slice the ropes upon release. Slippy pressed the button and winced as the blade shot out and cut his back, the ropes, and his hand.

Freedom was an impossible escape away, how he managed to make this work, he didn't know. Slippy used the remains of the ropes to tie Wolf and Leon together, hopefully that would keep them down.

Slippy also needed a weapon other than the knife, just in case. He searched Wolf's holster to find the Hornet, a blaster model tipped with a posioned bayonet. Guards could be heard shuffling down the hallway coming for Slippy, they must've heard the commotion. Slippy held the gun up and put his finger on the trigger and ran out the door.

* * *

Epsilon needed to keep control of this room, he didn't know why soldiers hadn't flown in and attacked yet. Time was what they needed, and he was giving them time alright. Guards tried to get past Epsilon, but the were dead as soon as he saw them.

He searched through the computer looking for any valuable information regarding Bowman's projects involving the supramorphs. It took him forever to find anything "supramorph" related, but detailed the plans that Theta gave them in order to trap and kill off the team. Soon he found something interesting, Bowman recently sent a message to his men. It was mission on finding Daren Harvey, who was last seen at a bar in Katina. Looks like they had their next mission, if they ever survive to tell about it.

It was only a matter of time before the supramorph, and that traitor Theta, came into room to finish the job. Maybe he could help the other's in the base, he started messing with the console, looking for something that could stop Bowman from blocking their radio transmissions.

Finally he found an advanced message command that had higher authorization than anything in the building. He could talk to anyone in the building. This was the best time to find out about what happened to the rest of the team. He scanned for certain frequencies before happening upon Iota's.

* * *

Fox and Krystal snuck around the toture area and found an elevator that led upwards, everyone here was able to easily make it from the top floor and back. If only they had found this elevator first. Problem was is that you needed a special key to operate it. The man Fox killed didn't have a key, and another toture man didn't have one on him either.

Whoever carried the keys in this place were always the people in charge of getting things in and out of locked doors. Fox's communicator went off, Fox quickly looked down. It was the computer room that was calling him.

"Who are you?" Fox asked cautiosly.

"Relax Iota, it's me Epsilon, I've take control of the computer room and cleared up the atmosphere. Backup is sure slow though." Epsilon replied.

"That's a relief, why are you using the computer room's radio though?" Fox asked.

"Every other channel is blocked, this is the only radio with access to all frequencies." Epsilon answered.

"Is Lazarus there, there's something I need to tell him." Fox asked. Epsilon froze. "What is it? Epsilon? Epsilon!" Fox shouted.

"Lazarus is dead Iota, Theta killed him in our attempt to reach the control room." Epsilon said trying to control his anger.

"She what! How did she…" Fox said baffled with tears in his eyes.

"She betrayed us Iota, this whole mission was a fake. I don't know why she did it, power corrupts all I guess." Epsilon said.

"No it's more than that, if Theta killed him herself with no hesitation, then she did this for a reason." Fox through clenched teeth.

"What ever the case, we need to get out of here and fast. I've located you on the map, you're near a staff elevator that require's a key. On the map, the key is located somewhere within the labrynith, and it's moving fast. Like it's chasing something." Epsilon said. "Luckily I have a map of the labrynith on the computer up here, I'll send it to your wrist comm, good luck, Epsilon out."

Fox put away the communicator and leaned against a wall. He couldn't believe he died, just couldn't. Even more, one of his best friends did it. Theta never showed any malice or hatred for Lazarus.

"I'm sorry Fox." Krystal said putting her hand on Fox's shoulder.

"Let's get out of here, Epsilon sent me a map to locate the key." Fox said pulling up the said map.

* * *

Clarke ran for his life, the warden was after him and he was out of ammo. He used every last bit trying to kill the damn monster, but he knew it would only stun it. Clarke was hopelessly lost while the warden chased him. Clarke tripped, he knew this was the end. The monster picked him up and extended it's claws. Clarke closed his eyes and waited for his demise.

Suddenly the monster dropped him, Krystal shot a fire ball at the beast with her staff. The monster smacked her aside and tried to finish her off, Fox unloaded a machine gun into the monster stunning it. Krystal stood up and smacked the Warden with her staff, knocking the creature back. Fox distracted the creature while Krystal used her staff to take on the beast. She used the freeze power to freeze the monster's legs then she swept under it.

The monster came crashing to the floor as it's legs were smashed to bits. She stabbed the staff into the creatures back and pinned it to the ground. Around it's neck was a collar with an orb hanging from it. Krystal kicked the monster in the head and pulled the orb off the collar. The Warden suddenly stood up, it's legs grew back and Krystal was suddenly knocked off of her feet.

"Oh now he's pissed." Clarke said. Fox turned to him and handed him a gun.

"Cover me, I'm going for the staff." Fox said while running for the staff potruding out of the monsters back.

Clarke shot the monster which was blocking the shots and was running for him. Fox dodged the creature's attacks and jumped onto the staff. Fox concentrated an sending energy through the staff. He held on tight and focused on quake, Fox felt weakened as blue energy flowed through the staff in a current. The current shot straight into the monster and obliterated the Warden. Fox was shot back ten feet while blood and guts were scattered everywhere.

Fox looked around, he felt extremely tired. How good it would be to fall asleep, but he couldn't. He needed to get out of the maze and back to the surface with Krysta and Clarke. Krystal ran to his side, and pulled out a needle, she injected a green liquid into Fox and stood aside. Soon he, the tired feeling began to fade. Fox felt his senses come back to order and he was back on his feet.

"What just happened?" Fox asked lazily, he was still tired.

"When you can't feed the staff magic, it takes out your life force instead. You needed to be more careful Fox." Krystal said helping Fox up.

"Hold on a minute, why'd you call him Fox?" Clarke said shaking his head. Krystal looked at Clarke a moment and sighed.

"Clarke, this is Fox McCloud, I used to be on his team, but I left." Krystal explained.

"You're Fox McCloud?" Clarke laughed sheepishly. "_The_ Fox McCloud, no jokes."

"Yes, I am Fox McCloud." Fox said to Clarke, this was going to get old fast.

"Well this is a pleasant surprise, I guess." Clarke said. "So this guy is the reason you tried to kill yourself when I found you." Clarke said pointing at Krystal, inside he was crying.

Why did he have to come back? To make my life just that much worse? Clarke thought to himself. Clarke loved Kursed, ever since he met her. He'd do anything to have her, now Fox was back and she had slipped from his grasp.

"So let me guess, you changed your name too?" Clarke said to Krystal.

"Yes Clarke, it's not really Kursed, my real name is Krystal." She said.

She told him that it was someone else when the name Krystal and her picture came on the news. He wanted to believe that, in fact he forced himself to. Just so he could stay with her, to keep her to himself.

"I really think we should get going, now that we have the key, we can get out." Krystal said pulling up the map.

* * *

Bullets soared overhead while guards called for backup. Slippy hid behind a crate and returned fire with Wolf's Hornet. The big purple bullets sputtered out after a short distance, but obliterated the metal crates that the guards hid behind. This was a one hit killer, you couldn't put a man together after this gun hit.

The storage bay was located right next to the hangar, Slippy was so close to freedom he could taste it. Slippy entered the hangar, only to come face to face with three supramorphs.

Guards stood to the side and watched as the supramorphs closed in on Slippy. Slippy jumped to the side, but he was caught by the claws of one other. The swipe cut a gash down his back Slippy winced as he shot the supramorphs, but his aim was terrible with the injury. He punched holes in their chests, but he needed a head shot to subdue them.

One pounced at Slippy and he had barely anytime to react. He squeezed the trigger after blindly pointing the gun in the supramorphs direction. Blaster bolt met flesh as the creature fell to the ground, headless.

The lucky shot saved Slippy's life, for now. There was still two more to worry about for the moment, the third one would be back and fighting in seconds. Slippy raised his gun to shoot another, but the body of the first supramorph got up and punched Slippy in the arm. The blow shattered the bone and sent the gun flying across the room.

Slippy fell back in pain and looked up at his attackers, they opened their mouths and looked about ready to eat him. He was so scared that he was about to pee himself, Slippy looked over at the guards. They sat roaring for the monsters to finish Slippy off, they probably never saw anything like this all the time. But there was something weaving in and out of the crowd. It was four guards sliding to the front of the crowd. They jumped out and mowed down the supramorphs with chain guns.

Slippy looked over confused as one of the guards ran over and helped Slippy over to a Wolfen parked over at the other end of the room .  
"Thank you, I don't know how to repay you." Slippy said baffled.

"Just don't die, go to Siva when you escape." The guard commanded while Slippy climbed into the wolfen and tried to start it up.

It was easy, considering the fact that the owner didn't personlize the passcode, making the wolfen as easy to start as a field vehicle. In no time, Slippy shot out of the hanger and into space. Beaten and broken, Slippy escaped. He still couldn't brag to Falco that he didn't have any help in the proccess though. But it didn't matter, he was free.

The guard told him to go to Siva, one of six moons located outside of Fachina. Slippy hoped there was some sort of doctor there, his broken arm hurt like no tomorrow.

* * *

Jack slowly climbed out of the lower levels and looked around the room for soldiers, they were all gone. Not a single one in sight, Jack ran to a computer terminal and tried his luck at hacking it. Thankfully a soldier had forgot to log off when he left, letting Jack into the Climate Control Center's data base. Who ever the soldier was, he was watching the teams every move. Somehow, trackers had been placed on the team and the soldiers were locating them. He searched around the facility and saw Katt, Falco, and Lucy were in a room dubbed "trap room" Jack ran as fast as he could to the elevator to try and locate the room.

The elevators worked just fine, still no soldiers opposed him on his way to the top floor. The ten minute elevator ride had Jack bored out of his mind, finally the door whooshed open and Jack was on the run again. Searching the halls, he came across a door labled meeting room. He pressed the button to open the door and it slid open, inside was Katt banging around on the walls searching for a way to hack the door while. They all turned and ran to Jack.

"Thank you, I thought we were going to be trapped there forever." Lucy hugged Jack.

"What happened to your arm." Jack said alarmed.

"She took a sniper bullet, we need to find Epsilon fast, see if he can do anything about it." Katt said pulling out her blaster and walking through the door.

* * *

"Get up, come on get up!" Wolf groggily stood up as the commanding voice shouted at him. "I can't believe you got your asses handed to you by Slippy Toad."

Wolf turned to the person who was shouting at them, it was one of the people in charge of Bowman's terrorist group. The pompus idiots really had no idea how to fight, they just had money and drugs. Wolf looked at the man for a second who was laughing at him. Without warning, Wolf grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him a inches off of the ground.

"I wouldn't be laughing, seeing as how you let him slip by." Wolf spat in the terrified man's face.

"Men, help, anyone…" The man yelped as Wolf clenched tighter. Soldiers surrounding the area held up their guns and aimed them at Wolf.

"That's enough O'donnel." Wolf let go at the sound of Bowman's voice, was speaking over a radio. The man crawled away. "The ship will be under attack shortly, I want you to take a sqaudron of men to the surface of Fachina. They will no doubt head to the surface once they find out their little friend _escaped_." Bowman hissed.

"Yes sir." Wolf saluted through clenched teeth and walked to the hangar where his team and another group of men were waiting.

"O'donnel's going to be leadin' us? You gotta be kidding right?" A man laughed from the group. Wolf pulled out a taser and shot the man in the crotch.

"It look's like you have poor bladder control." Wolf snapped at the man who had peed his pants while writhing on the ground. "Next time it's going to be the real thing." Wolf snarled pointing his blaster at the man on the ground. "Any questions? No? Then let's get out of here." Wolf shouted at the group who followed to their ships.

Leon walked up to his parking area to find that there was no Wolfen. The little bastard must've hijacked it! He immediately thought.

"I told you to turn on your security locks." Caroso laughed.

Leon cussed to himself and walked to another ship. Wolf led the group out of the ship and to the surface of the planet.

"You take over from here." Bowman said to the shaken terrorist leader. He looked at his men.

"What are you standin around for? Prepare for battle, they're coming for us!" He screamed, the men scattered to their positions and loaded up the guns. Pilots loaded into ships and flew out, waiting for the attack.

* * *

Slippy clenched his eyes shut as the doctor cleaned his wounds. He aligned the bones together and filled in the cracks with miracle gel. Tme would have to heal the wound, but the gel would make it better in weeks, as long as Slippy let it heal the right way.

"You have a call mister Toad." A nurse said bringing in a phone.

"Hello?" Slippy asked.

"Slippy, I can't believe you made it out alive!" It was Peppy.

"Nice to see you Peppy." Slippy said smiling.

"So what is it you want with me?" Slippy asked, he knew Peppy's calls were business related.

"This is just a call from a friend this time Slippy, I'm just here to talk, you might want to call Amanda, she's been worried sick about you Slippy." Peppy chuckled. Slippy sighed, he was able to see her again! It felt good to know that he still had his life ahead of him.

"Thanks for telling me Peppy, I need to call her right now." Slippy said.

"Okay, see later Slippy." Peppy said. Slippy clicked off of the phone and dialed his finace's number.

* * *

A fleet of arwings flew straight towards Fachina's atmosphere with Class A battle ships closing in on the dropship. Bowman's dropships defense ships met the arwings with bombs, the explosions smashed force fields and obliterated some of the arwings. The battle ship's exterior cannons locked on and fired powerful laser blasts at the ships swarming the surface of the Battle ship.

The battle ships charged their main lasers and aimed the guns at the dropship. It was all too easy. Inside the dropship, everyone was scrambling for drop pods to try and escape. Bowman watched from his monitor as explosions rocked the ship and sent people hurtling across rooms. The dropship captain (the terrorist from before) struggled to reach to drop ship room. But it was too late for him, the captain was going down with his ship.

Lasers punched through the control room and exposed him to deep space. The captain screamed as he was pulled out and crushed by the vacuum of space.

Battle ship captains cheered as the drop ship exploded in a huge ball of fire, but that was only the beginning of the mission. Already the fleet of arwings were attacking the surface of Fachina.

Opposing ships met the arwings and a large dog fight ensued. The leader of the fleet called for free attack formation. The arwings split up and each honed in on a target. Experienced veterans overwhelmed the untrained defense fleet as the arwings decimated the group.

Epsilon watched from the control room and smiled. Backup was on the way, incoming fleets of arwings wiped out the Bowman pilots while huge battleships burst from the sky. Slowly they landed on the surface Fachina and let out tons of infantry who attacked the climate control center.

"Come in Cornerian army, come in, Supramorph team survivors calling for arwings, please assist." Epsilon called.

"Roger that Supramorph Team, sending location of vehicles to your computer, over and out." A soldier responded.

Epsilon examined the map, the vehicles were being dropped off at a location near the mine next to the climate control center. He called the rest of the team to try and get them out of the facility. One by one he called everyone, sending the map along with his message. As soon as he finished, he bolted out of the room as fast as he could.

The elevator worked just fine, all of the soldiers were busy with the army outside. Epsilon had no trouble escaping, but this was just the beginning. There was still a whole army of soldiers he needed to assist. To finish the job here and try to retake Fachina.

* * *

Alex looked into the sky, battleships slowly lowered down and dropped soldiers off at the base of the climate control center. He looked at his wrist comm, which set off its "new message" alert. Alex checked the message, it was from Epsilon saying that there were arwings at the bottom. He put away the message and looked over the edge of the roof. Alex took a few steps back and jumped over the edge and plumeted straight down. He past floors at lightning speed before crashing into the ground below.

Shattered bones healed as he stood back up, he had fallen into a battle field. Alex saw that enemy soldiers were trying to kill the men guarding their arwings. In a split second he popped over and snapped an enemy's neck, then turned around and slashed up the other guy. Three others shot a Alex, but the chemical didn't stun him anymore. He punched a hole in on and threw the other at his partner. Surrounding enemy soldiers ran way while the Corneria soldiers didn't know what to think.

"Thank's for the backup there, we were done for." One of them finally said. Alex nodded and stood by the arwings, waiting for the others to get to them.

* * *

Sasha walked up to her new custom battle ship, she jumped inside and turned it on. The engine roared to life as she shot into the sky. The ship she drove cut through the air like a hot knife through butter as she shot down her enemies. Many opposed her, some actually hit her, but they all ended up the same. Shot down and dying in a big ball of fire. Suddenly, similar air craft punched through the sky.

"So you're the informant girl huh? What a traitorous bastard, I can't believe I was about to kill you back on Fortuna." Wolf said calmly over his radio.

"Yeah right, and you had your ass handed to you by Slippy Toad." Sasha mocked. Wolf's eyes narrowed to slits, he was never going to live this down.

"Listen, we need to deal with the surviving team members because it looks like you and your pal didn't kill them all, so come with us and we'll finish them off." Wolf ordered.

Sasha reluctantly joined up with the group and they flew over to the climate control center. There infront of a few arwings was a figure, who appeared to be gaurding them. One pilot flew in for the kill, but that was his mistake.

As he flew to the figure, it suddenly disappeared and reappered on his windshield. He tried to barrel roll the guy off, but he still held on. Alex grabbed the ship and aimed it at another enemy ship. The guy was using all of his techinques to try and get him off, but it didn't work. Alex smashed his hand through the windshield and pulled the boost lever. The pilot helplessly blasted into another pilot and was engulfed in fire upon the collision.

Alex jumped out of the fire and onto another pilot, the other pilots were trying to shoot him off, but the wild movements of the man ended up having his ship shot down.

Alex took a few hits as he jumped onto his next victims ship, but it was just a few scratches. He ripped open the windshield immediately and unbuckled the man in the cockpit. The pilot shot out of the ship and too his doom while Alex started to shoot the other ships around him before being shot down himself.

"Who the hell was that?" Another pilot asked.

"Whatever it was, I hope it's dead." One pilot responded.

"You idiots, don't expect such an easy kill all of the time. Because one of your friends decided to try and kill him, we ended up losing half of our fleet." Wolf yelled at the group.

Alex rose from wreckage of his hijacked ship and ran straight back to the arwings. Already his team had started boarding their ships and began taking to the skies. Alex jumped in his and lifted into the air.

"Who are we missing?" Alex asked counting the number of team members in the air.

" Lazarus, Iota, Clarke, and Kursed." Lucy said.

"Count Lazarus out, Theta betrayed us and killed Lazarus." Epsilon said into the radio, everyone was silent. "Enough of this! Revenge will be sweet, mercy upon our enemies souls!" Epsilon screamed before flying head on into a group of pilots.

"Come, follow Epsilon!" Falco shouted, the rest of the group followed in and started shooting down enemy pilots.

Blood and snow described the battle field, but Corneria was winning! With the extra backup, things went a little more smoothly. For now at least, the elite squad consisting of Team Star Wolf and Sasha were blasting away any pilot who dared oppose them. It was a never ending cycle of violence, until they met their match. Epsilon charged his bolt and locked on Sasha, he released the trigger and hit her from behind. She turned around and started shooting at her attacker, who swiftly dodged.

"Go to hell!!" She screamed firing a bomb at it, but that proved useless.

"Good idea Theta, go to hell." Epsilon said shooting Sasha numerous times before she could dodge. She tried to lose Epsilon, but she couldn't shake him. Somesaults and U-turns did nothing, Epsilon was simply a better pilot than she was.

"Help! I've got a bogey on my six!" She screamed over the radio, her shields couldn't take much more.

Epsilon was ready to finish her off, but an arwing swooped in and took a bullet for her. It swerved around and started to open fire on Epsilon, who dodged the bolts trying to hit his target. Who just seemed impossible to hit.

"Stay away from him!" Alex yelled shooting at his brother.

"Well brother, it seems like you have a few new tricks up your sleeve. That goo you poured on me got me good, but I'd like to make up for it." Alex2 said calmly while shooting at Alex.

Alex deflected the bullets with a barrel roll and shot his brother right on the windshield. Alex2 looked up and saw a crack, the forcefield wasn't very concentrated there. He swerved around taking and exchanging hits with Alex. They were equally matched in an arwing.

Falco took on his old friend Leon, who was just as talkative as ever. Leon however, wasn't used to his new ride. Falco still had trouble with him, but it was more of a run and don't get shot plan for Leon. Falco took little to no hits while pursing Leon, but pilots backed up Leon. Falco fell for the distractions and would take hits from Leon.

"Get over here and take me on, one on one, you little pest." Falco yelled at Leon.

"But this is just so much more fun!" Leon mocked.

Lucy both took on Caroso, but he had a little assistance himself. Other pilots would attack Katt, leaving Lucy just for Caroso. Lucy was helpless with her arm, Caroso shot her over and over again. Now in mortal danger, she had no choice but to run.

Jack followed Wolf and tried to shoot him down. Being the inexperienced fighter, Jack was in trouble. Of course, he still put up a fight. He too was put in danger as Wolf was ready to finish him off.

"I'm going to enjoy this Sorense, for all of this trouble you've caused me." Wolf said charging a bullet. Jack braced himself for a bullet that would never fire. Wolf took two hits and the bullet was lost in mid charge. "Who is it now? The rest of the pathetic team?"

"No Wolf, it's just me." Fox said blasting away at Wolf.

"Now this is more like it pup, I'll deal with you later Sorense." Wolf flew behind Fox and tried to take him out from behind, but Fox was able to keep him off of his rear.

Fox had changed alright, now he fought like a beast. Wolf had no idea how to lose him, the only option was to fight. Fox cut Wolf off and shot his windshield, another hit and would shatter. Fox fired a bomb and blasted away Wolf, who narrowly dodged the full blast before being shot down and crashing into the ground..

"You don't know how much you've changed, a lot more cruel than before McCloud." Wolf said out of breath, he was bleeding and he felt dazed. He limped to a squad of soldiers who helped him move.

Panther was about to finish Lucy off when he saw two other pilots coming straight towards him. He looked at Lucy and at the pilots, these guys meant business. Panther decided to take on the other pilots, Lucy was in no condition to fight. He wanted to destroy her, but like Krystal, he couldn't finish her. Panther left her alone and went on to take out the other pilots.

"Now just who might you two be?" Panther asked.

"I think you know very me well Panther." Krystal snapped. Panther froze. "Get Lucy out of here Clarke, I'll deal with him."

"Hmph, have it your way." Panther choked, he didn't want to believe it was her.

Krystal shot at Panther, Panther dodged her attack and returned fire. But as he tried to aim at her, some one hit him from behind. Krystal took advantage of the situation and shot at Panther herself.

He was being double teamed! Krystal blasted away his wings while the other pilot finished him off. Panther screamed for his mother as he plumeted to the ground. Krystal called her mystery helper.

"Thank's for the help there." Krystal said.

"No problem, but next time, wait for me when you decide to leave a dugeon." Sargent Gray laughed.

"Bill, you made it out, and in one piece." Krystal said.

"Yeah, and two complete strangers know my first name." Bill said suspiciously.

"I'm no where close to a stranger Bill, just think back a few years. You know, Fox's girl, as you so affectionately called me." Krystal explained.

"Krystal! Well, does that mean you're lover boy is still around? He can't be that Iota person can he?" Bill asked.

"Just go and ask him yourself." Krystal said.

"Alright, try and get yourself and your friends out of here, the Cornerian military has got it covered." Bill asked.

"See you Bill." Krystal said flying over to Katt.

Enemies tailed Falco as he tried to follow Leon. The coward just let his pilots do the dirty work as he tried to run away. As hard as Falco tried to keep up, he couldn't get past the blockade of pilots swarming him. Suddenly, someone fired a bomb and detonated it in the large group of enemy ships. Falco had only a split second to act, he slammed the brakes and smacked his chest against the dashboard of his arwing. Luckily, he survived the massive explosion. Falco looked forward, a trail of smoke led to Leons ship. He was so desperate, that he killed off his own men in an attempt to kill Falco.

Falco thrusted to Leon, who's risky manuever cost him his shield of soldiers. He needed to finish the job right here and right now before more soldiers came in. Falco charged his arwing blaster, the targeting screen locked on. Falco followed Leon for only a few seconds more, just to close in to get a clear shot.

Falco lined up his shot, eased his fingers off of the trigger, a red bolt of energy blasted into Leon's aircraft and blew off the entire rear end of Leon's ship. Leon screamed as his ship spiraled out of control and began it's plumet to the ground. Falco shot at the spiraling mass of metal as it fell, blowing what was left of Leon's ship into scrap metal.

The only ones left of the elite squad were Sasha and Alex2. Once again, Alex was locked in heated combat with his brother. The aeiral battle escalated all the way to the edge of Fachina's atmosphere. Alex decided that he needed to use some more, unconventional, means of fighting. He looked down to the ground, he sighed and pulled up on the controlstick. Alex was staring straight up at deep space. He clicked off the engine and let the ship plummet in free fall. He opened up the cockpit windshield and exposed himself to the wild speed of the world around him. He turned and saw that Alex2 actually followed him to the atmosphere.

Alex shifted around so that the arwing lined up with his brother's. He braced himself for what was going to happen next. Alex2 and Alex were inches away from eachother when Alex2 pulled out of the way of the plummeting arwing. Alex jumped from his arwing and smashed into Alex2's arwing.

Alex grabbed the engine and wrenched it off, the ship was now uncontrollable as it started to plummet with Alex's arwing. Alex jumped off of the Wolfen and straightened out his body to reduce wind resistance. In no time at all Alex had caught up with his arwing. He jumped in, closed the cockpit door and turned it on.

Alex struggled to regain control of his arwing. Slowly he straightened it out and aimed at his brother. Who was starting to climb out of his Wolfen and ready to attack Alex. Alex charged and fired at the practically defensless ship.

The ship was torn in half and Alex2 was knocked off the ship and fell head first. Alex turned away and searched for Sasha, who was already locked in combat with Epsilon. She had lost her right wing and was struggling to regain control of her ship. Sasha coughed on smoke as she tried to retreat. All of her allies had been shot down, she had no backup and it was all over for her.

Sasha decided that she needed to abondon ship. She lowered herself close to the surface and pulled out a grenade. The bomb was activated and she jumped to the ground. The grenade detonated and destroyed what was left of the ship.

Epsilon looked at Sasha, who was running for her life. He could've finished her, right there, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. She had killed Lazarus sure, but he been her partner since she was thirteen. Epsilon didn't want to believe that almost ten years fighting with her, and protecting her, was all a lie. Finally, his decision had been made, Epsilon squeezed his controlstick and turned it left. Sasha ran away to backup, and Epsilon regrouped with the rest of the team.

Fox lowered his arwing down near a grounded Cornerian battle ship. Something was wrong, men were scrambling left and right, they all looked like panicked ants. It didn't take long to realize that supramorphs were probably involved in the attack. But he couldn't take them on himself, he pulled up his communicator and called for Alex.

"Alex, I need assistance here, I think supramorphs are attacking the ground support." Fox asked.

"Okay I'll be there in a second Iota." Alex replied.

Fox turned off the communicator and landed his arwing. He jumped out with his gun raised and dashed to the battleship. It was on fire in some parts, while pieces had fallen to the ground. They must've been working their way through the innerworkings of the ship.

An explosion sounded off as a pillar of fire shot out of the top of the battleship. Fox fell to the ground the force was so powerful. To his right, soldiers were shooting at something, Fox pushed himself up and looked over at where the soldiers were shooting. Blurry figures jumped from the hole the explosion created and were headed straight towards them. He readied himself for the supramorphs headed straight for him. A man next to him suddenly stopped moving and fell to pieces.

A supramorph had cut through to them and was ready to take on the next man. Fox and the others conentrated their fire on the supramorph, the gun fire held it in place for a short while, but it didn't seem to really do anything. Fox charged his blaster and aimed for the head, he fired and the head exploded into pieces.

The body of the supramorph swiped around randomly while Fox charged again and shot the body. A hole punched through its chest and it fell to the ground. Thankfully it didn't get up again, these were clones.

Three other supramorphs had made it to the group of men and were ready to kill. The other men around him had already been torn apart by the time Fox had a chance to attack the newcomers.

One pounced on Fox, its knife like claws stabbed into his arms and pinned him to the ground. Fox screamed as the creature opened its mouth and began to close its teeth on his jugular. The teeth tightened and Fox started seeing stars. His neck felt warm as blood started running down the sides of his neck. Fox was relieved when the supramorphs teeth loosened, he looked up to see two strong arms pulling the jaws apart to the point of tearing.

Supramorph blood dribbled onto Fox's face as the jaw and the skull seperated. Alex lifted the creature off of Fox by its arms and punched a hole in its chest then threw the dead creature to the side. Alex turned around impaled the other supramorph on his claws and threw it into the other supramorph.

Both of them fell to the ground and Alex grabbed the nearest one and pulled it's head off. The other stood back up to try and fight, but Alex kicked it in the stomach and roundhouse kicked the creature in the head as it bent over. The head collapsed like a deflated balloon and the creature fell to the ground dead.

Alex bent over to take a look at Fox, he had small punctures around his neck where the supramorph had sunk its teeth. Fortunately for Fox, the supramorph hadn't taken a chunk out of his neck.

His arms had been pierced deep by its claws, all the way to the bone. The best Alex could do for him was patch it up and give Fox some pain killers. He helped Fox up who looked kind of dazed.

"Thanks for the assisst." Fox coughed, the taste of blood filled his mouth.

"You okay?" Alex asked.

"No, something's wrong with my throat, I can't breath!" Fox panicked, his voice sounded wispy.

"Calm down! You'll make it harder for yourself if you panic like that, I'll call Epsilon down here." Alex said, he pulled out his communicator and called for Epsilon.

"Epsilon, we need a medic and fast, Iota was attacked by supramorphs." Alex said urgently.

"Oh no! Is it anything serious?" Epsilon asked.

"Potentially, says he can't breath well and his voice sounds weird." Alex explained.

"Okay I'll be right over, Epsilon out."

Epsilon had flown in in about two minutes. The arwing landed next to the wreckage that was a battle ship and ran over to Alex. Fox was breathing heavily while Alex supported Fox with his shoulder. Epislon ran over to a clear spot and unfolded a mat on the ground.

"Alright, lay down." Epsilon ordered, Fox obeyed.

Epsilon pulled out his field surgeon kit and saw the punctures on Fox's neck. Hundereds of little holes were dotted along his jugular. Epsilon told Fox to open his mouth and he looked inside. Fresh blood crawled its way up his throat as Fox tried to breath. Something in his neck had been stabbed.

"This is bad, we need better medical equipmant, maybe one of those battle ships has a suitable environment to operate in." Epsilon said putting away his kit.

"What's wrong with him? " Alex asked.

"Something in his neck's been punctured, most likely his larnyx, he's swallowing and breathing in his own blood as we speak." Epislon explained.

"Okay, then let's get him out of here." Alex said, hoisting Fox onto his back. Fox held on while Alex ran through the battle field. Epsilon was in the middle of calling the others to tell them about the situation and that they needed to meet "Battle Ship 22C" He put away the commuincator and ran through the battle field.

On the way, Bill saw the three running for Fox's life to a battle ship. Fox had been injured by the looks of it and was in critical condition. Bill decided to follow to see if he could help with anything.

All around them, all hell had broken loose, but Corneria was winning this battle hands down, Bowman's infantry had the advantage of numbers, Corneria countered with landmasters. Just one ball of plasma from one of those things could potentially kill all of the men within an area of six feet.

Bowman tried to fight back with anti-tank weaponry, but snipers made short work of them. In a desperate attempt to win, they started running over soldiers with trucks found at the mining site. Landmasters made short work of those, reducing them to nothing but piles of melted scrap.

It all seemed so unsetteling that Bowman, supposed military genius, would be losing so bad against Corneria. But there was always a plan B for if things went wrong, always.

* * *

Krystal sat down immpatiently fiddling around with her hands waiting for Fox, Alex, and Epsilon to get to the battleship. What was taking them so long, she knew Fox was injured, but that made her even more anxious. Epsilon didn't specify how injured.

"So Kursed, you knew Panther?" Lucy asked, she had finally had her arm treated by acutal doctors and it was on it's way to healing.

"I've known him ever since he first joined Star Wolf." Krystal replied.

"Dang, that was way back during the Aparoid War wasn't it?" Lucy said, she was still in school way back then.

"Just a little before that actually, he was Pigma's replacement." Krystal said.

"Just a quick question, did you ever come across Team Star Fox, by chance." Lucy asked.

"Yes Lucy, I was with them for awhile actually." Krytsal replied.

"No way, you're lying, I haven't heard any stories about a bounty hunter named Kursed from them." Lucy laughed.

"Yes, you remember there was a Cerenian right?" Krystal smiled.

"Yeah, what about her?" Lucy asked.

"Well, think about it, I'm Cerenian and I'm claiming to have been with Star Fox." Krystal smiled, what a pleasant surprise this was going to be for Lucy.

"But that was Krystal, I knew Krytsal, and no offense or anything, but you aren't anything like her. Her hair was different and she had a weird accent." Lucy said.

"You mean like this?" Krystal said, using her accent for the first time in years. Lucy looked dumbfounded, she looked at Krystal for a moment and shook her head.

"No way, you've been dead for years now." Lucy half laughed half cried.

"I've always been alive Lucy, I just thought I'd never see all of you people again. It's brought an old part of me back." Krystal explained.

"Why did you leave though?" Lucy asked. Krystal sighed and told Lucy the whole story behind her mess. The love sick mess with Fox, the suicide attempt, the years of her life spent fighting to survive. Lucy looked at Krystal with thoughtful eyes, it was a surreal feeling, seeing one of your best friends come back from the dead was doing a number on her emotions. She didn't know wheather to cry, or to laugh, hell she felt like singing could do this occasion justice.

Suddenly, Alex walked in holding Fox, Epsilon ran to one of the operation tables and layed out a fresh sanitation mat. He had Alex lay Fox on the table and go get him the person in charge along with some medical supplies. Krystal ran over to Fox, he had a bloodstained rag around his neck. Fox opened his eyes and looked over at Krystal.

"Hey." Fox Wheezed.

"Fox!" Krystal said and hugged him.

"Fox?" Epsilon asked, Lucy's ears perked up.

"That's his real name, Fox McCloud." Krystal replied.

"He told you his real name! He's broken his oath with Lazarus." Epsilon shouted.

"No, no, I figured that out. A long time ago, we used to be on Team Star Fox, but things shaky with our relation ship and I left him." Krystal explained.

"Are you kidding me? My best friend who I thought was dead for the past two years, has been living with me for the past week!" Falco said storming into the room. "And his girlfriend, who also should've been dead for two years, was also living right under my nose!"

"Yes Falco, believe or not, it's us." Fox whispered from the table.

Alex walked in the room with a doctor and was holding a tub of medical supplies. The doctor walked over to Epsilon and asked Alex to hand him the tools. Epsilon stepped aside and Alex obeyed. A special "X-ray" was taken, the pictures developed to show that Fox's larnyx had been punctured in many different places, and in some places, it had been torn. Along with that, he had his stabbed arms and a broken rib from when supramorph had pounced on him.

"Alright, heres the larnyx has been damaged and you've lost tons of blood already, but I will be able to operate. You will not be able talk for about a day and a half if the procedure goes well." He explained to Fox, and to who ever was listening. "I'll need everyone to clear the room unless you're here to assist me or you're a patient, so everybody head on out." The doctor pointed over to the door.

* * *

Sasha's communicator screeched off. She pulled it open and inside Bowman was calling. She took a deep breath and answered the call.

"Hello, Sasha, I need you to get over to the climate control center ASAP, oh, and you only have about ten minutes, so I would haul ass if I were you." Bowman cackled.

She put away the communicator and ran for her life. The climate control center had to be about six minutes away. So she could prabably make it in time, maybe. She saw a blur come close to her, it was Alex's brother.

"Need a lift?" He asked.

"Sure." She said. Alex grabbed her, and in split second, she was already at the clmate control center. "Damn, you're fast."

Alex nodded his head and walked inside the buidling. Sasha followed him. Inside Bowman was waiting by the elevator, next to him was a group of bandaged and injured co-pilots; Leon, Panther, and Wolf.

"Look's like you all made it in record time, let us get going then." Bowman said pressing the elevator button that said "roof." The team stepped inside and stood. "Well then, you must be wondering why I called all of you trash here." Bowman snapped as the elevator started moving. Not a word was said. "It's because even though you failed out there today, you are all still useful to an extent. Killing you would get me nowhere, so I'm going to have you come and escape with me. Here's the deal, in this very building, I have rigged the generators on all the floors to explode. Once the building is gone, not only will the weather return, but all of the people in the sky will be killed. The icy conditions will freeze those exposed for too long, and there will be no chance of escape." Bowman explained, the rest of the group nodded. The elevator stopped and the door opened on the roof.

Bowman walked over to a red keypad and typed in a passcode. The keypad changed from red to green and two large doors opened to reveal a small seven person ship. Bowman walked over to the getaway vehicle and opened up the door. He stepped inside and the  
rest of the group followed. Bowman smiled and pressed a button as he left the atmosphere.

* * *

Bill sat outside of the ship waiting for news on Fox's operation. All of Bowman's men had been driven to another side of the planet entirely, but the air fights continue. With the combined force of landmaster fire and skilled pilots in the air. They really didn't stand a chance.

He looked up near the top of the climate control center, something big was moving. It was probably Bowman making his getaway. Whatever, they had taken control of Fachina as a bonus. And maybe there could be some valuable information within the climate control center, who knows.

Suddenly, the climate control center's bottom floor exploded, sending plasma and shrapnel everywhere. The destruction of the base of the collosal building fell over on it's side as more explosions set off. The sight was amazing but terrifying at the same time, as the building crashed on its side, the explosions shook the ground and engulfed men too close to the building in plasma. People unlucky enough to be in the buldings fall zone were crushed, even a battle ship had been crushed by the huge building.

But the worst was yet to come, the air suddenly became frigid. The wind picked up and clouds started rolling in. At first there was a light snow, then only after a few minutes, the snow changed into falling snow balls.

Pilots fell out of the air as the wind and snow threw them off course, Bill heard explosions among the roaring winds as pilots crashed into the ground. Soldiers around him that stood still too long were crushed under pounds of snow. Bill ran inside of the battle ship and to the room where everyone was waiting, they had all been shaken by the explosion.

"What the hell just happened out there?" Falco asked.

"Bowman destroyed the climate control center, the weather's back to blizzard and ice." Bill panted while shivering.

"Some one seal the door! We're losing heat fast." The doctor screamed from the operating room.

"Wait, wasn't there something we forgot on this mission, I heard there was something about another Climate Control Center, right?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, that's right." Bill replied.

"Well where is it?" Alex asked.

"Here, I'll give you its location on your wrist comm." Bill said pulling his communicator.

"Thanks, seal the door after I leave, I'm going to turn the thing back on." Alex ran out the door and into the blizzard. Bill looked at Alex disappear into the snow and ice, he reluctantly closed and sealed the door.

Alex hiked through the six foot deep snow, it had only been a few minutes and the planet was back to the hard to navigate wasteland. Cornerian and Bowman soldiers dotted the icy landscape. Most of which had only died or given up a few seconds, their bodies quickly disappeared as Alex passed them.

The wrist comm pointed him over to the location of a frozen lake, next to it was the climate control center. He was so far away though, and blindly running into the snow wasn't helping either. There aside from the smells of the dead people under the snow, there was no smell, no vision, and no sound. The people back at the battle ships would freeze to death before Alex could get anywhere. He remembered that landmasters had been in the fight, maybe there was one he could use.

Still checked the tall lumps of snow that resembled the landmaster tanks, but none of them had a landmaster in them. Alex thought for a second, maybe if he searched for corpses using his nose, he dug up many, most of which had died before the snow flew in, some had been people trying to escape the sudden blizzard. Finally, he found a Cornerian landmaster tank pilot, the man had apparently tried to escape to safety, only to be cut in multiple places. Supramorphs had got this man first. Alex looked the way the man was facing the way the man's legs were facing.

Sure enough, there was a lump in the snow, he dug through and found a perfectly good landmaster. Alex had to wonder why the man would leave the landmaster, but his answer soon came to him. The top had been forced open, a supramorph had probably attacked and threw the man out of the tank before killing him.

Alex shovled snow out of the tanks cockpit and quickly jumped in. He closed the hatch, which luckily still sealed shut. He had no idea how to pilot one of these things, it had a similar control scheme to an arwings, so maybe it wouldn't be too hard.

He pressed a startup button and the machine roared to life, just infront of him was a targeting system looking in the landscape before him. Interesting enough, he could change the view to infrared and night vision.

Alex checked his wrist comm and followed the path with the now more efficiant means of transportation. Rolling across the terrain was a breeze with the landmaster, just the vision was terrible. Every now and then Alex poked his head slighltly out of the cockpit to get his berrings straight. In no time he could see the climate control center, but rockets suddenly burst from an unknown crevice. The anti-tank rockets punched into Alex's landmaster and sent him flying out in a huge explosion.

The landmaster was no more, but Alex was already at the climate control center, he could walk. Alex sniffed the air and listened for the person who shot him. To his surprise, there were about ten people in the area. All of which had thermal suits on, allowing them to cross the environment without perishing.

Alex followed the scents of the troops, he suddenly appeared infront of three. All of which wore Bowman's colors. They screamed and fired at Alex, he dodged the bullets and stabbed one man in the neck. Alex picked up the choking body and broke its back. The men around him shot at him, only to have Alex disappear and reappear right infront of them. Shocked, they would only try to shoot and run. But Alex sliced the man into cubes and snapped the other soldier's neck.

Alex super ran to the climate control center and walked through one of the gates. He snuck inside and saw a group of men already messing around with the control panel. Without making a single sound, he walked straight behind a soldier and looked at what he was working on. He was trying to disable the climate control center by the looks of it, Alex snapped the man's neck and started activating the climate control center. Alex turned on the climate control center before the other's could react and the skies quickly cleared.

All the guns were pointed at him when a machine like whirring noise sounded off. Everyone turned in the direction of the noise to see a door opening. In seconds, tons of weird robots walked into the room and stood still.

"Please show Cornerian access pass." A mechanical voice asked, no one knew what to do and a low beep sounded.

"Please show Cornerian access pass." The voice asked again. Still no one knew what do to. The low beep sounded and the robots began flashing red lights.

"This is your last chance, please show Cornerian access pass or you will be terminated." The mechanical voice said one last time before one of the soldiers ran for his life.

"Commence termination." The voice commanded, the soldier running was cut in two by a laser blast.

The other soldiers pulled their guns and tried shooting the robots, but no luck. They had plated shields to defend themselves while they would pull a gun out and shoot deadly lasers that cut straight through any living thing.

Three guards made it to one of the doors, only to find it sealed off with a force field. All of them turned around and the last thing they saw was a thick blue laser going straight for their heads.

Only one guard and Alex remained, there was no way out, and the robots closed in. The last guard tried shooting the robots, but was obliterated by an onslaught of lasers. The machines turned their attention to Alex, who was ready to dodge the next move. Blue lasers fired as Alex jumped out of the center of the carnage. The roof was the only way out for him, he climbed up the wall dodging the lasers firing at him. Jumped through the opening in the roof and outside again, feeling the moderately cold temperatures was the best thing happining all day.

"Alex do you read me?" Bill asked, the voice reception sounded bad.

"Yeah loud and clear." Alex replied.

"Good, we need you to stay there for a little longr, the battle ship needs to come and pick you up." Bill said.

"Alright, see you then, Alex out."

* * *

Alex nearly fell asleep on the way out of Fachina, this seemed to take even longer than Fortuna. Death and betrayal filled this mission, it made him think twice about his allies, and what his allies think about him. Clarke's beliefs about Alex being a traitor had been quelled by the event's of Theta's betrayal.

It turns out the message they received on the truck had been from the crash sight of the Cornerian drop ship, which was destroyed by supramorphs. Things were going to change in this team, with Lazarus gone, Epsilon was now leader of the team Lazarus. Iota, who was now back to Fox McCloud, was falling in love with Krystal all over again. They were inseperable, Fox couldn't talk for atleast ten more hours, so Krystal just layed next to him as he sat down.

His procedure went off fine, they needed to replace some of the larnyx tissue and fold it over. The only side effect was that Fox was going to have a much deeper voice for the rest of his life. Falco was overjoyed to have his friend back, he now knew what it was for Fox when Falco went on his own for awhile.

Jack had to give the news that Bowman was on the hunt for Darren Harvey, the next missio could possibly revolve around him. Everyone believed it was a trap, everything else was so far, why not this.

The battleship allowed them to step off into the _Sky Atlantis_ for the first time in forever. The ship had been cleared of baddies and all stolen goods had been returned. Another thing that returned was Slippy, who had his arm in a cast and bragging rights for the past few days.

Once informed of everything, he found it all hard to take in. Lazarus died, Fox and Krystal are back, Theta's a traitor, it was all overwhelming. Still, he brought them as far away from Fachina as possible.

Alex went to his room, it was empty, Io-Fox, was now sleeping with Krystal he remembered. Now he had a room all to himself, he fell to the bed, closed his eyes and fell into Jack's memories.

_

* * *

_

The dark hallways of his house winded forever to him, he had come home and found that the front door had been wrenched open with a crowbar and someone was in the house. He slowly made his way down the halls, following his wifes screams. Jack walked through his bedroom doorway to find Sophie laying on the ground, bleeding. Jack ran over to her body panicked, he tried not to scream, or cry, or both.

"_Jack…g-get…Alex…" Sophie choked. _

"_I will Sophie." Jack sobbed. _

"_Jack, I love you" Sophie whispered to Jack, he eyes closed and she breathed no more. _

"_I love you too" Jack cried in his hands, who could've done this? _

_Jack ran down the hallway, but not before grabbing a knife, to Alex's room. Two figures stood in the room, one was swinging something into what sounded like mush and the other was watching. He slowly looked around the man, he was swinging a baseball bat at…at….his little boys corpse. Jack exploded with anger, he took the knife in his hand stabbed the man with the knife multiple times in the neck. The chocking man was shocked as Jack slit open his throat. _

"_You've finally come home Jack, don't you love what I've done with the place?" Carlisle mocked. _

"_Why Carlisle, why did you kill them! My son, my wife…" Jack cried. _

"_Because you weren't good for business, all this do gooder stuff was getting in my way. So cut off the head of the snake, and the body dies." Carlisle said taking a huff of his cigaratte. _

"_You bastard!!" Jack screamed and stabbed Carlisle in the chest, Carlisle threw Jack and jumped out of the window. Jack ran to his phone and called the police, he told them what happened, hung up the phone, and cried. His family was dead, he had nothing left in this world now. All except for one thing, Carlisle still lived a free man, revenge was the only thing on his mind. Carlisle was going to die for what he did, Jack swore his life upon it._

_

* * *

_**A/N: Finally we're out of Fachina, but what lies in store for the team next? Thanks for all of those who put up with my move and read through this long chapter, as always, Review, and happy reading. **


	17. Shattered Alliance

Chapter 17

Krystal's eyes slowly opened; Fox's arms still wrapped around her, his breathing still and calm. Memories of the previous night groggily reapeared; they had just gotten back to the _Atlantis_ when he knocked on her door. Krystal opened the door and wasn't surprised to find Fox there; he was just there to say good night. She hugged him, and he seemed surprised. But he still hugged back and the rest is history.

Fox stirred and held her tighter, he hadn't had a lifeline to hold onto for a long time and now she was here.

"Morning." He yawned.

"Hey." Krystal turned towards Fox with a smile. "Sleep well?"

"You know it." Fox sat up and stretched.

Krystal lay back into her bed as Fox stood up and gathered his clothing slumped on a chair. Fox slid into his pants and pulled over his t-shirt. He sat still for a moment and looked over at Krystal; who now started to stand up and get dressed as well. A sudden knock at the door made Fox jump.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Falco asked. Fox rolled his eyes.

"What are you doing here Falco?" Fox asked.

"I should be asking you the same question." Falco said, Fox swore he could see his grin behind the door.

"It's nothing Falco." Krystal said laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys need to finish whatever's going on there; we need to go, Peppy's meeting us in like ten minutes."

"Jeez, alright we're up." Fox said rushing; he was ready to go out the door.

"Hey, I'll meet you later; I've got to take care of something." Krystal said quietly.

"'Kay, I'll see you later then." Fox said, he kissed her cheek and then left.

Fox left Krystal to herself, still muttering something to Falco. She closed her eyes and looked down. Something was building within her, she could feel its life force, it was weak, but it was there.

* * *

Alex stared in his mirror. Hate and anger were present in his eyes, he felt mad for no reason. He saw something, but only for a second. Alex squinted and stared closer at his reflection, he saw again, but this time it was still there.

"Get the hell out of me!" Alex yelled. The reflection smiled.

"You need me Alex; I helped on Fachina didn't I? Not that little brat, I gave you immunity to the drug." The wraith replied through the reflection.

"What are you doing to me?" Alex asked.

"Simply helping you Alex, making you better."

"Leave me alone, you're doing something to me behind my back, I can feel it." Alex muttered.

"It's your true feelings Alex, you hate them all, and they fear you." The Wraith replied. And for a split second, Alex believed it was true.

"NO, get out…of…me!" Alex yelled trying to force the wraith out of his head. His reflection screamed, piercing noises echoed throughout the room. Alex's head felt it was about to explode. After the pain peaked, a huge blast of air blew past his ears and the mirror shattered. Alex fell on his back as the desk the mirror sat on fell in half.

"How's that for power." Another voice echoed in Alex's head, the kid had saved the day.

* * *

"There's nothing more I can do about it, theCornerian president wants me to disband this team and give the _Atlantis_ back. I'm sorry everyone, there's nothing I can do." Peppy said through gritted teeth.

"We can't just disband though, we have to stop those supramorphs, if we don't who will?" Jack asked.

"Is there anything wrong with creating an alliance for ourselves?" Lucy suggested.

'Lucy, don't be stupid. You'd be criminals, fugitives on the run." Peppy replied.

"They don't know what their doing to us, we need to together and kill those supramorphs and stop Bowman, splitting us up isn't going to solve any problems." Lucy raised her voice.

"I agree with Lucy, we need to stick together, and we need to fight to the end." Epsilon said enthusiastically.

"Don't do this Lucy. Please, for the sake of all of your lives don't do it." Peppy said with sad eyes.

"I've got to dad, what ever happened to 'Don't quit Lucy, your life is equal to your determination.'" Lucy snapped, Peppy winced at his own quote. "If you don't agree, it doesn't matter either way, I'm leaving for Kew, and whoever wants to join me can follow."

Everyone watched Lucy Hare walk out of the room, her gentle eyes filled with a firey determination. Everyone slowly began to disperse to their rooms to pack. Fox was last to leave, Peppy looked over at Fox. Fox saw the face of a mourner's, it was as if a family member died.

* * *

Sasha pounded her suitcase, she lost it, the one thing that she had of him, and she lost it. Her little photo was still probably on the _Atlantis_ resting under her pillow. She actually began to cry over the act, tears streaming down her face. Footsteps entered the room, she immediately turned around and saw Alex. His torn eye fitted with a mechanical one, he had that same angry expression on his face that he usually had.

"What the hell do you want." Sasha immediately turned hostile.

"I heard you crying and I came to check." He simply responded. Sasha's face turned red.

"So what?"

"Well it bugs me, with freedom comes a conscious, and so I had to check." Alex muttered.

"You mean you actually have feelings..." Sasha whispered, mostly to herself. This spawn of accident somehow gained freedom, and was far more advanced than his almost mechanical clones.

"It is part of being alive, I feel pain and anger as much as you do." Alex lectured her.

"Well this is still none of your business." Sasha said throwing her suit case on the floor.

"Then I'm going to make it my business, I'm watching you _Theta. _Even if you went as far as to betray that team, we all really don't know who your working for."

"Same for you Alex, I know you hate Bowman's guts, you want to rule in his seat someday." Sasha snapped back. Alex froze and stared.

'How did you..." Alex stuttered.

"Oh please, I can read people like a book. You want to get rid of Bowman, to build an army of your own and take over." Sasha smiled a small half smile. "The feeling is mutual by the way, I hate that simian bastard as much as you do. As far as I'm concerned, I'll work for you."

Alex looked at her, and smiled back.

"Really now, work for me? A rebellion's a dangerous thing for a chick, you'd have to swear loyalty." Alex's smile grew, Sasha shrunk in her feet.

"And how would I do that?" She asked cautiously.

"Kill one of the other mercenaries with me, be it O'donnel, Powalski, or even Caroso. I want one of those incompetent morons out of the picture, they've been no help to my operations." Alex's smile disappeared.

"And if Bowman finds out?"

"He won't, that's the thing." Alex said walking away.

"When do we strike." Sasha asked.

"Right about now." Alex's smile returned

* * *

Epsilon sat in his room putting away his little belongings, Lucy's criminal plan is risky, but life's full of risk. For one they'd need some sort of safe house, they'd need new identities, no problem there. Peppy would probably tell their secret if he found out about a vigilante gang, however, they'd be totally different people by then. Epsilon took a deep breath as he held Lazarus's diamond edged sword. He wondered why Lazarus taught them so much melee combat, if you could just shoot your opponent. He packed away the sword still thinking about the topic when Krystal ran into him.

"Epsilon! I've been looking all over for you." Krystal exhaled in relief.

"Yes what is it?" Epsilon said confused.

"I need you to confirm something for me." Krystal asked.

"What is it?" Epsilon asked a little worried.

* * *

Fox loaded his luggage into his arwing, the _Atlantis_ already was just a memory, fading fast and soon to be left behind. Fox decided to check his arwings engines while he was still in the storage compartment. Everything was in fairly good condition, there seemed to be nothing wrong at all. He was ready to go on when he saw Krystal frantically running towards him.

"What's wrong?" He immediately asked. She seemed a little flustered, Fox patiently waited for her to calm down.

"Fox, I'm Pregnant." She finally said after a deep breath. Fox stared at Krystal, thoughts of last night rushed back. Karma, it's all karma.

"Wi-with my kid?" Fox's voice cracked, Krystal nodded her head slowly. Fox just stared at the ceiling_. _

"Fox, are you okay?" Krystal asked, stroking his cheek. Fox was quiet for a while, his eyes lost in thought.

"What are we going to do Krystal? For the first time in years I see you again, and I end up getting you pregnant." Fox shook his head.

"Well Fox, it's our kid. It took both of us to make it, it going to take both of us to take care of it." Krystal replied.

"Krystal, we need money, we need a place to live. We need to stay out of danger, and that means we can't join Lucy's team and fight supramorphs. It's not going to be as easy as it sounds." Fox said with a tinge of depression in his voice. "I'm not scared for me Krystal, I'm scared for the kid. We're both prime targets in a war, what are the chances that the baby goes without a father? Or doesn't even live at all?"

"Come on Fox, we both have money saved up and as far as Bowman knows, we're still Kursed and Iota. The baby still has a chance Fox." Krystal smiled, Fox couldn't help but smile back. Fox wrapped his arms around Krystal

"Maybe your right Krystal, just maybe." Fox almost whispered. "Where do we go from here?"

"We'll head to Katina, I've got a place we can lay low for awhile." Krystal said after thinking for a minute.

"Meet you there." Fox said walking towards his arwing. Krystal gave Fox a quick kiss as he walked past her, she felt like a ton was taken off of her shoulders.

* * *

Sasha only had precious seconds to screw around with Panther's wolfen. Alex could only distract for so long. After what seemed like forever, the deed was done and the wolfen was rigged. She pressed a button on her communicator and a signal was sent to Alex. Sasha closed up the wolfen's guts and ran to her position. With a whoosh, the hangar doors slid open.

"Enough of this Alex, we need to go." Wolf finally said annoyed by Alex and Panther's conversation. "Sasha? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Checking out the insides of my wolfen. Tuning it to my special preferences." Sasha replied cooly. Wolf rolled his eyes and went to his wolfen. Panther sat in his while Sasha turned hers on. She kept hoping Pather wouldn't notice any changes in his wolfen, hopefully.

Alex stepped inside his while Leon turned his on. Sasha winced as Panther's wolfen stalled for a second before finally turning on_. 'Please don't check the engine, please' _Sasha thought to herself, luckily, Panther was too lazy and he blasted off first thing. Everyone followed him out, Sasha steered clear of Panther's flight zone. Wolf barked out the order to start drills and everybody followed the routine, everything rolled along smoothly, until they needed to test their boost. Panther's didn't seem to slow down, Wolf tried to contact him, but the radio was out of order. Panther's wolfen was out of control, barreling around like a broken missile.

Panther had no idea what was going on, the boost just got faster and faster. He accidentally ripped off Leon's wing and sent him spiralling out of control. Panther saw the boost meter reach dangerous levels. His wolfen slowly began to heat up, it began to feel like an oven in his ship. Sweating and panting, Panther tried to brake, but it was too late. Everything around him was a blur, he felt like his eyeballs were boiling. Alex admired Sasha's handywork as Wolf frantically tried to help Leon get control of his ship back on line.

The out of control wolfen finally stopped. Panther held his breath, sweat flowed in gallons off of his face. It was all too close, but he was alive. His breath's slowed as he tried to boost the wolfen. Strangely, all he heard was a high pitched whine. He fiddled with the controls, but the whine grew louder. Suddenly Panther was engulfed in a ball of fire, the power cells finally couldn't stand anymore heat and exploded. Molten materials floated in the space left behind, Leon gained control just in time to fly past. Sasha felt strangely emotionless about the kill, the painful death she had put Panther through. Over in Alex's wolfen, she could see his lips form a dangerous grin.

* * *

"You're not coming with me!?" Clark yelled.

"I have some personal business to take care of, it doesn't involve you." Krystal said walking to her arwing.

"Personal business? That's your best excuse not to tell me something? We're a team Kursed, what's so personal to break up the team?" Clark asked.

"We _were_ a team, something's happened between me and Fox." Krystal was annoyed now, Clark was pushing his limit by bugging her for the past ten minutes.

"Him! You're running away with him? After all I've done for you, all the help and money I've offered, you're just going to run away with the lover boy who really didn't love you." Clark spat.

"And you gave all of that money and help to me out of good will? According to your thoughts, you want me all to your self. It's too late Clark, I'm pregnant with his child, and I need to keep the baby safe. That's why I can't go with you to Kew or where ever the hell you feel like going." Krystal glared at Clark. Clark glared back, he was furious now.

"You bitch! I'm going to get you for this Kursed, then I'll kill that pig, McCloud!" Clark screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Who's the pig Clark? With all those dirty thoughts and fantasies formed in your head I'd think you're pretty close." Krystal whispered with hate.

Clark was fed up with her. He punched her in the face, shock and pain grasped her mind. Clark grabbed the dazed vixen and threw her to the ground, he prepared to kick her in the stomach; to teach her a lesson for betraying him. Suddenly a strong grip clasped around the back of his neck. He was lifted off the ground and turned around. Ice blue eyes stared into his.

"Alex you better not get involved with this." Clark said, the fury in his voice still present. Alex tightened his grip on Clark's neck, Clark pulled his gun out it's holster and blasted Alex.

Alex winced and then grabbed Clark's gun. He crushed it between his hands. Clark struggled in Alex's tight grip.

"You're no better than that monster Carlisle, ready to kill a family for your own personal gain. It's you who deserved to be punished." Alex's lips pulled back into a snarl.

His razor claws extended. Alex held the claws to Clarks throat and prepared to slash when he saw Krystal looking up at him terrified, her face turned away. Warm tears actually flowed down Clark's face as he looked at Alex. He threw Clark to the side like a rag doll and looked down at Krystal. He helped her up, he saw that her nose had a stream of blood running down it. Her eyes opened, pure terror stared out of them.

"Krystal I'm sorry, please don't hate me, I'm not a monster Krystal, I'm not." Alex begged, he was fighting any sort of rage left in him, yet his voice still sounded angry. Claws still jutted out of his hands, he fought to retract them.

"You're definitely not a monster Alex, you saved my baby's life, thank you." She finally said and gave him a quick hug.

"Here's something for that bloody nose, it's a good thing it's not broken." Alex handed Krystal a handkerchief, she used it to staunch the bleeding in her nose and stuck close to Alex as continued in the direction of her arwing, she didn't want to be left behind with Clark.

Over on the ground where Clark lay, anger welled up inside him. What was with these people, it was like they were all against him. Alex, Fox, even Kursed...no she wasn't Kursed anymore, she was Krystal, someone else.

What had he done wrong before? She was all his, and now she was pregnant with some other guy's kid. He had spent the last year coaxing her to him, drawing her closer. But she slipped through his fingers in a snap. Fox McCloud, who only needed to do the simple task of taking off his disguise to win her love. Hadn't he rejected her years earlier? Didn't he ruin her life?

Evil thoughts drifted in his mind, he wanted to kill McCloud, it would be so easy. He's always alone, just doing his thing. A barrage of suprise arwing blasts would send Fox McCloud down into the threshold of hell. Then again, McCloud was one of the most skilled pilots in the Lylat, what if he dodged the attack. Clark felt his angry plan fall apart, he would have to catch Fox alone with a gun. That was Clark's strength lied, just blow the brains out of the bastard and be done with it. He sat up and walked towards his arwing.

* * *

Epsilon was stressed, he wanted to enter Theta's room. To see what she left behind, just out of curiosity, but these past few days he hadn't been able to bring himself to do it. Something felt ominous about entering the room, it seemed like Pandora's box from myth. He knew he had only one last chance, and it was now or never. Tendons stretched in his arm as his grasped the door knob and turned it. Light flowed into the room as he pressed forward.

Inside was nothing, just the things that came with the room. He sat on the bed, slightly disapointed. Something caught his attention in the corner of his eye, he turned to the pillow and saw a glimmer sticking out of the case. Epsilon grabbed the glimmer and found that it was a photograph, the glint had been the lamenated paper catching the light of the hallway. Epsilon examined the photo, it was a Venomian trooper. Fairly high in rank by the looks of it, but who was this exactly? Then there was something else, the photo actually felt different than a normal photo did. This one was thicker, and felt a little heavier. He probed around it and found a small slit in the top of the photo. Inside was a neatly folded paper, Epsilon slowly unfolded it.

The top of the page read "_To my dearest sister Sasha_" in wavy cursive letters. _'So the young man in the picture is her brother.'_ Epsilon thought to himself, he then read on.

_"I'm sorry I haven't written you a letter in awhile, and I'm afraid this is going to be my last. Remember when I said the war was going to be over very soon, well the plan grandpa has been talking about is going to be set into place. Here's what I need you to do, before the sun rises on the 18th, you must head to the motel on 6th street. You know, the roach motel. Don't tell mom and dad, they can't be trusted, and don't be seen on the streets as well, stay hidden. At the motel grandpa should be there, go with him, you're going to leave McBeth, and never go back. I also want to say that I love you and that you've been the best friend I could ever know. _

_Remember to stay safe and to stay hidden. _

_Love Micheal."_

Epsilon was slightly confused, just who was Theta before she met Lazarus? That question had to be pondered later, Epsilon had spent way too much time in that little room. He left the room and shut the door.

* * *

Slippy dragged his stuff with him to his arwing. He gulped down air as he hoisted the large suitcases into his arwings storage compartment. The past few years hadn't been very kind to his body, weighing over 160 pounds at 5'5" Slippy had some weight issues. With a job that always had him sitting with long nights and lots of food at his disposal, it was fairly easy to gain the weight. However, he was no stranger to this, he weighed more in high school. Fox was the popular one and always getting Slippy into parties, and with zero self control, Slippy gained 50 pounds between his freshman year and his senior year. Putting him at 170 pounds at 5'5" It wasn't until that summer that Fox finally whipped him into shape. (sort of) Slippy wasn't the most loyal to his work outs, but enough so that he lost a lot of the weight.

In fact, Fox helped Slippy out so much but it seemed very unlikely that these two would be good friends. Slippy hadn't met Fox until around 7th grade, and at that time Fox was new. His father recently joined the army and they moved to Corneria City. Slippy had been the short fat kid with social issues. Fox had been the interesting new person with an openly optimistic attitude, always willing to make friends, he already made friends Falco (who at the time was a gangster involved a large spree of robberies) and met Slippy shortly after. Strange enough, they had the same interests. Mechanics and technology were a big thing they liked. When they had been partnered in their technology class, they passed with flying colors.

Slippy climbed into his arwing and prepped it to fly, fond memories went through his mind as he thought more and more about his childhood with Fox. Heck, those had been some of the best years of his life, when a long time ago he used think of them as the worst. Now Fox was back, but it was like meeting him all over again. He had changed a lot, his optimistic attitude was gone. His clear eyes looked lost and foggy when he wasn't focused. Most of all, he was ruthless and violent. Sometimes Slippy saw that Fox would just drop his weapons and fight with his shock clubs. Smashing heads so hard that they were lobbed off was a sickening sight Slippy had never witnessed until he met the new Fox.

"Where did all the good times go?"

* * *

**A/N: Finally I've got a new chapter up, this was supposed to be longer but it's been so long since I've updated I think I should just put it up. This fanfiction is not dead, nowhere close, it's just my old computer's hard drive is screwed up and I've been using a new computer to type this up.**


	18. A Reversal of Fortune

Disclaimer: Blah blah I don't own Star Fox blah blah blah

Krystal and Fox set up in small bounty hunter's safe house on Katina. The accommodations were small, but it would have to do. First thing was first, identities had to be changed. Krystal's most notable feature was her blue fur; and Fox's face was famous throughout the universe, Iota's face was notorious. They'd have to find some way around it.

It wasn't long until Fox was able to find an answer. A costume shop had all they needed, makeup, costumes, it was all there. Fox finally decided that he was going look older than he really was through some special make up and Krystal found a suit that had fair colored fur. All they needed was to paint her face.

Back at the safe house Krystal began transforming Fox's face, with some carefully placed dyes to his fur giving the appearance gray hairs peppered around his head. Special skin like substance could be painted on to give Fox wrinkles. In about an hour, Fox looked as if he aged 20 years. Next was Krystal.

Her costume was realistic enough; she only needed to dye her head to match the costume. It was a quick transformation for her. Fox was impressed by just how different they looked. A few final touches were taken into place, such as colored contact lenses and practicing a new voice to match their new appearances. Now there was only one last thing, forged documents.

* * *

A large group consisting of Slippy, Falco, Katt, Jack, Epsilon, and Alex all flew in formation to Kew. Ready for anything, this new rebellion was willing to fight those supramorphs. But things abruptly changed course. A high pitched whine resonated in Alex's skull, something was coming.

Three missiles blasted Alex at once sending him crashing to the surface of Kew, the group split up and tried to figure out what just shot them. Epsilon immediately saw the _Atlantis_ coming towards them. More missiles blasted towards the group, everyone retreated to the surface of Kew.

"I'm sorry I have to do this to you, but it's the only way to get you to stop." Peppy said in unfeeling monotone.

Behind the _Atlantis _control panel, Peppy relentlessly shot at the group. One after the other he shot down arwings. Slippy was first, next was Jack. The remaining team members regrouped and mounted an attack on the _Atlantis_.

All attempts seemed futile as their shields were reduced, there seemed to be nothing that could hurt the ship except on the inside. Epsilon called a retreat, but more homing missiles were launched at them. It was a race against a faster and more efficient foe.

The small formation launched themselves towards Kew, the missiles still following. Soon the atmosphere had taken it' toll on the missiles and they exploded due to friction. Everyone cheered, they had safely made it to Kew, but the fight wasn't over yet. Falco could see Conerian ground troops flood into the streets. Rockets fired up at the arwings, civilians ran left and right trying to get out of the chaos.

"Epsilon what do we do? I don't want to kill them, but they'll kill us pretty soon." Falco grunted shifting left to right.

"They're not on our side anymore Falco, they've recognized that, so why don't you?" Epsilon replied over the radio.

Falco held his breath and shot at a group of soldiers, a group of soldiers that could've possibly been the ones that helped them back on Fachina. Two were disintegrated on contact three others ran firing up at the arwing.

'This is the Cornerian Army speaking, if you do not set down your vehicle we will be forced to take lethal actions, you have been warned.' A radio signal popped up on their radios. In the distance, a demon launcher barricade set itself up and aimed.

"You idiots tried to kill us as soon as you saw us!" Falco shouted back.

"Alright team, touch down somewhere and run, hopefully we'll meet again with Lucy if she isn't already dead." Epsilon commanded. Falco and Katt split apart and flew into different directions.

Falco stopped breathing when the signature sound of a demon launcher rocket blasted into the air.

* * *

Jack limped out of the wreckage that was his arwing. He smiled, fate was on his side. Pain jolted up his leg with every step, his body wanted to stop, but he couldn't. Distant gun shots echoed around the city.

"Halt! Jack Sorense you are under arrest." A soldier shouted holding his gun at Jack, more joined in.

Jack placed his hands on his head and knelt down on the ground, soldiers closed in.

"Damn it Peppy." Jack muttered under his breath.

A soldier grabbed Jack's shoulders when a purple beam soared through the soldier's head. Brains littered Jack as the body fell to the ground. Soldiers looked around frantically as more purple beams shot them down.

Jack looked as terrified as the soldiers, would he be next?

"Well Sorense, looks like we meet again, under some more 'difficult' circumstances to say the least." A familiar voice called out.

"Carlisle?" Jack asked.

"The one and only. It seems as if you've been in a little jam Sorense, and we helped you." A smug smile formed on Carlisle's lips .

"Why didn't you kill me?" Jack asked, Carlisle laughed.

"You owe me Jack. You know the saying 'I scratch your back and you scratch mine?'"

"And what kind of favor are you asking of me?" Jack winced, it hurt to breath, it hurt to walk, it hurt to live.

"Ever hear of 'The Ring of Death' Jack?" Carlisle smiled. Jack knew fully well what it was; it was an illegal pit fighting game where the goal is to kill your opponent gladiator style.

"You want me to compete in that?" Jack asked exasperated.

"Don't play dumb with me, I've seen you fight, and you fight pretty well. You must kill though; but that's no surprise for you isn't it? So here's the deal, you win, I get the money, you survive, deal?" Carlisle held out his hand, Jack looked around. Invisible gunners pointed their snipers at him; he could have to join if he wanted to survive. He shook Carlisle's hand.

"When do I start?" Jack sarcastically.

"Oh soon enough Jack, soon enough."

* * *

"Come on wake up, they're coming! Please wake up." A voice rung in Alex's ear, it was a new voice. Alex opened his eyes and looked up at a young woman.

"Wha…" Alex groaned, his body was still healing.

"We need to get you to safety, those damn soldiers attacked the neighbors a few houses down and killed them because an arwing was in their yard." The woman replied.

"Who are you?" Alex asked.

"No time for that, are you up to walking? My gran's house is a long way from here." She asked.

"Yeah, where to?" Alex replied. The woman nodded.

"This way." She turned and jumped over a fence. Alex followed after.

Alex followed her up a fire escape to the roof top of a building, she was running as fast as she could and Alex fought the urge to super run so he could keep up with her. Alex saw her reach the edge of a building, expecting her to stop, to his surprise she leaped across the gap to the next building. Alex followed after.

"Keep up, we've still got a ways to go." The young woman climbed onto a telephone wire and ran across.

Soldiers frantically ran around on the ground as they safely made their way across roof tops. Soon the young woman climbed through a window of an old building, Alex crawled after. It was an old run down room that Alex set foot in, the carpet smelled moldy and couches that reeked of insects and disease sat side by side against a wall. Alex walked through a doorway that led into a dark hallway. Explosions echoed outside of the building, Alex shuddered as he heard screams follow.

"How much further?" Alex asked. No one but the shadows answered, something scared him about this place. He could find no trace of the young woman who had helped for him for some unknown reason, and that's probably what scared him the most. "Hello?"

A quick shuffling movement caught Alex's eye, it was close to the end of the hallway. Bleak light from a window barely illuminated the halls. Cautiously, Alex stepped forward. A shadow shifted and ran away, Alex chased after.

He easily caught the shadow, in the light it turned out to be a young boy, probably no more than ten years old; his hair black with dirt, smudges patched his face round face.

"Who are you?" Alex asked, trying to be gentle. The boy blankly stared at him and frowned. Alex heard something ruffle against the carpet; a black figure pounced on top of him and held a knife to his throat.

"What the hell do think you're doing stepping in our territory?" A light nasally voice asked. Alex rolled his eyes.

"I was led here, no if you'll kindly take that knife off my throat, I won't hurt you." Alex said slightly annoyed.

"I don't care what led you here, but I do know what we do with trespassers. Right Mutie?" The nasally voice laughed, the boy nodded his little head.

With one simple movement the knife slid across Alex's throat dropping a thick ribbon of blood onto the floor. Low chuckles came from the man behind him, the neck wound stung as it patched itself together. Alex whipped around and grabbed the man by the throat.

"Listen to me, I should rip out your eyeballs and shove them down your throat! Grab me, assault me, and attempt to kill me. No questions asked." Alex roared. Inside Alex winced at his voice. With out even realizing it, his claws shot out of his empty hand.

"Hey it was mistake you see, I was just, you know just…" The skinny little man was squirming, sweat dribbled down his forehead. Alex forced himself to drop the man, who scooted himself back a few feet and whipped out his knife again. "Hah! Caught you off guard didn't I?"

"What's your problem?" Alex shook his head.

"I'm guard of this here hotel, and if you don't get past me and Mutie over there, then you have no entry." The nasally voice laughed. The boy called Mutie shook his head, as if to say he had no part in this.

"How do I get past you then?" Alex humored the little man.

"You got to fight me, fist-to-cuffs, so no pulling out those little retractable blades there." He replied. Alex pulled his claws back in.

"Good, now I'll do my part." The little man threw his knife away. "We start on three, one…three!" The little man threw a punch and hit Alex.

Alex saw the guard wince slightly, Alex jabbed him in the face and threw him to the ground. Yet somehow still ready to fight, the guard hopped up and charged. Alex scooped him up like a rag doll and smashed him into a couch, fluff and wood crashed everywhere. Alex's little opponent stood back up and prepared to charge once again when a booming voice shook the room.

"Justin!? What are you doing?" An elderly woman entered the room.

"Jus' was taking care of business as usual Gran." Justin answered with a slur; he had been hit a little too hard.

"I suppose you're the guest Julie was telling me about; my, you're even bigger than she said. Sorry for the rude hosts but…" Gran noticed the blood stains on Alex's shirt. "What happened, are you hurt? Did Justin use his knife?" She snapped.

"It's nothing really Ms." Alex replied, really it was nothing.

"Michael, did Justin use his knife?" Gran yelled. The young boy Justin called "Mutie" nodded his head.

"Mutie, you little snitch." Justin whispered under his breath.

"I told you not to call him that! And you hurt our guest, this is serious Justin." Gran's voice grew louder with every word.

"B-b-but he's an intruder, I saw him snooping around." Justin said baffled.

"Trying to do what, steal from us? What is there to steal? Try to hurt one of us? You know when people want to hurt you, you live around some of the nastiest criminals don't you?" Gran looked down at Justin, who winced. "Now just let me see that wound of yours."

Gran looked rather shocked, fresh blood covered Alex's neck, but there was no wound. She probed all around Alex's neck searching for a wound. There was still nothing to be found.

"I told you it was nothing." Alex said with an uneasy smile, hopefully he didn't have to explain himself to strangers.

"Well that's good, I'm really sorry for the behavior that Justin has displayed." Gran said softly.

"You think he's so damn innocent, but you should have seen him earlier. He threatened to rip out my eye balls and stuff them down my throat after I cut him." Justin snapped.

"So you did cut him. Well I think you've lost your little knife Justin. Michael, bring it here." Gran glared at Justin as Michael handed her the knife.

"Come with me; oh excuse me, in all this fuss I forgot to ask your name." Gran said slightly embarrassed.

"The name's Alex." Alex replied casually.

"Hmm, I've heard that somewhere before…" Gran trailed off. "Anyway, come with me, to the nicer parts of this old hotel."

Alex followed, as he walked, he caught Justin glaring at him.

"You know what, I'll get you for this, you too Mutie." Justin growled. Michael clung to Gran the rest of the way.

Alex shrugged off the threat and followed still.

* * *

Dinner at the odd household was nice, warm home cooked potato soup with buttered rolls was a delicious alternative to what he could've had in the streets. It turned out that Gran was sort of an adoptive mother to these children, although to old to be called mother, she asked them to call her Gran. Julie was the oldest at 20 years old, Justin was 16, and Michael was about 12. All of these kids had lived with Gran for 11 years. Alex asked his main question just before dinner, "Why help me out?"

"Julie said that the government was after everyone in the neighborhood you were in, so she pulled you away. Me not being a fan of Corneria's government, so I was more than delighted to bring you in." Gran replied

Throughout dinner he got to know everyone just a little bit better. Michael had been mute since he was 5 years old, Justin used to be a street urchin who made his living off of pick-pocketing and Julie was actually Gran's biological grand daughter. Then the crucial question Alex really didn't want to answer, just who are you and where did you come from?

"It's kind of complicated…" Alex replied, his stomach churning.

"Come on, it can't be that bad." Julie laughed. '_Oh but it is Julie_' Alex thought.

"Alright, well I used to be with a team of people. We fought against Bowman and…"

"Are from that team the general put together? The one trying to kill those weird bioweapons?" Julie asked.

"The very one." Alex replied.

"That's where I've heard the name before; your team's mission on Fachina was all over the news once the army got involved." Gran said with a gasp.

"Wait, so everyone knows the team? It was supposed to be secret to the public." Alex recalled.

"Well that was before your team was disbanded, the news said that everyone on your team went their separate ways." Gran explained.

"That's how they put it?" Alex growled. "We were betrayed, shot down on our way to this planet."

"That means the rest of your team is here!" Justin blurted out.

"They're probably all dead." Alex said, mostly to himself. The room was silent, Alex sighed. "Sorry to trouble you with my story, I really think I should go." Alex pushed away from the table.

"No don't, you're fine. It's just a little shocking that's all." Julie stood up.

"It sounds like you've had a long day; maybe you should get some rest." Gran smiled. "Michael, show him to a room."

Michael stood up and grabbed Alex's hand, and led him down the halls of the abandoned hotel.

* * *

Krystal walked through the back door of the traditional medicine shop just a few buildings away from the safe house. A young wolf was unloading boxes of strange spices and herbs.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be back here, the shop's at the front!" He suddenly shouted.

"Calm down Sean, it's me Kursed." Krystal said.

"Kursed? What have you done with yourself?" He inquired.

"Having a bit of an identity crisis, your brother around?"

"Oh, well, he's out delivering now. Traditional remedies are on the rise lately, what with demons stalking the streets." Sean trailed off.

"What kind of demons?" Krystal asked with a lump in her throat.

"Monstrous demons, there have been murders on the streets like no other. One of our concoctions seems to keep them away." Sean explained.

'_Supramorphs on Katina, how did they know we're here?'_ Krystal thought to herself.

"Here come in and have a drink while we wait for Tim." Sean said leading Krystal into the shop.

* * *

About an hour passed, Sean attended to customers while Krystal sat in the back. Finally the backdoor opened and in stepped Tim. He was stretching when he saw Krystal.

"Sean, who's this?" Tim asked his brother.

"That's Kursed, don't you recognize her?" Sean laughed.

"Well, what do I owe the honor of your presence?" Tim said flamboyantly.

"I need you to make some documents." Krystal replied; Tim's smile disappeared.

"Can't you find somebody else in town to do it?" Tim asked.

"Come on Tim, you're the only person that I can trust to do this." Krystal begged.

"Can't you just let a guy make an honest living? The police caught on to my little act when some shady characters were tied to me, so my printing days are over." Tim muttered.

"Please, this is important, somebody wants me dead, and they want my boyfriend dead. They're the ones who control these so called demons you're exploiting." Krystal said going down her mental list. Tim was silent.

"Alright, but you did get this from me." Tim said leading Krystal through a door hidden behind his book case.

Krystal had been here a few times before, as a bounty hunter she needed to be different people to get her targets, be it at private parties or the target already knew of her. Now this time she was trying to hide. Tim stopped her front of a computer with a large laser printer next to it.

"Alright let's begin; you have your picture right?" Tim asked, Krystal nodded and handed him the small photo of her. "Okay, now what's your name going to be?"

"Mary Clancefeld." Krystal said quickly.

"Where'd you come up with that?" Tim asked.

"It was the first thing to come to mind." Krystal replied with a shrug.

"Right, next how old are you going to be?"

"27" Krystal answered.

"Good, now all I have to do is plug in some measurements and we'll be done with you. Didn't you say you had a boyfriend?" Tim suddenly asked.

"Yes."

"I'm guessing he need's a new I.D. as well?" Tim sighed. Krystal nodded her head. "Fine, do you have his picture?" Krystal gave Tim the little photo of Fox in costume.

"He looks a little old for you Kursed." Tim squinted.

"He's in costume just like me." Krystal replied.

"Whatever you say, so what's his name?"

"Leo Clancefeld." Krystal replied quickly.

"Alright, age?"

"45"

"Do you have any measurements for him? After all they're a little crucial for official documents." Tim asked. Krystal racked her brain.

"He's about 5'11" and probably weighs around 170 pounds." Krystal replied.

"Alright, wait a minute for the papers to print." Tim yawned as the laser printer buzzed to life.

"I owe you a lot for this Tim." Krystal replied.

"Just don't tell any of your friends that I do this and you'll make me a happy man." Tim muttered.

Tim stood up and grabbed the papers off the printer and handed them to Krystal. They were still warm. He led Krystal out of the secret room and let her leave.

"Hey, can I buy one of those weird little concoctions for the demons?" Krystal asked quickly.

"Yes, here's a pre-made one." Sean handed her a small lavender bag, a sweet aroma emanated from the opening that smelled a lot like vanilla.

"Thanks, here's the money and now I'll be off, a million thanks again guys." Krystal smiled.

"No problem, I just hope we meet under better circumstances." Tim smiled and waved as she left.

* * *

**A/N: What another strange turn this story has taken, it beats out some of my other ideas for these past two chapters though. Hopefully I'll get some more writing done before I go on holiday. Until then, happy reading!**


	19. Family Matters

Dislaimer: I do not own this story. This disclaimer was brought to by the Spencer Klondike Foundation, thank you.

Epsilon touched down on the ground with his arwing, his blood rushed through his veins as he delivered his final message before he left.

"I'm going to find Lucy. Falco I want you and Katt to find somewhere safe. There's got to be somewhere." Epsilon commanded. He powered down his arwing and left without an answer.

Soldiers were quickly surrounding the vicinity. There wasn't much time before they cut him off. Epsilon turned and ran through into a building. He was greeted by soldiers holding their guns up to him. Epsilon shot one soldier for a distraction and kicked over a heavy table for cover.

Gun fire began to splinter the table in seconds, Epsilon raised only his gun over the table and fired blindly into the soldiers. The fire stopped just long enough for him to peek over and get a few accurate shots in.

He shot one soldier in the shoulder and another in the head. Two other soldiers quickly began firing at him while another began to flank him. He hadn't realized the soldier was flanking him until it was too late. Epsilon saw someone was attacking him out of the corner of his eye, he slid to the side, but a bullet shot him in the arm.

Epsilon aimed through his gun sight and shot the attacker in the chest. The two others still fired at the table, hoping to break it down. It wasn't long before chunks started falling off and exposing Epsilon. Epsilon jumped out of cover and shot at the soldiers hoping to at least keep them at bay.

With one final desperate move, Epsilon charged at the soldiers. He dodged bullets barely, one skimmed his shoulder. Another his already injured arm. Finally he reached a soldier and kicked him in the stomach. The soldier instantly bent over clutching his stomach. Epsilon shot him at point blank range, killing him.

The other soldier had was about to shoot when Epsilon kicked the gun out of his hand. To retaliate, the soldier pulled out a combat knife and sliced Epsilon's gun in half. Epsilon punched the soldier in the face and sent him falling back. The soldier rolled to the side and stood up, his knife raised.

Epislon raised his hands to shoulder level and stepped closer. The soldier lunged out to stab Epsilon in the stomach, Epsilon side stepped and grabbed the soldier's head. With one twist, the soldier's neck had broken and he fell to the ground dead.

More soldiers entered the building, guns blazing. Epsilon picked up a gun and the knife the soldier dropped and ran to the first room he could find. He had stepped into one of the bathrooms. He looked all around to find a way out.

There seemed to be no where to go, he was trapped like a rat. Or was he? He saw a vent just above the bathroom sinks. He stood on one and used the gun he got to blow away the vent's covering and he crawled in.

He barely fit, but at least he was getting somewhere. Voices echoed through the vent as he crawled to another vent cover just up ahead. He crawled over as fast as he could and looked through. It was the bathroom adjacent to the other one. He blasted off the vent cover and crawled out of the vent.

He cautiously stepped out of the bathroom. Apparently all of the guards ran into the first bathroom to find Epsilon. With no time to lose, he ran down the hall and found the stairs.

* * *

Falco had landed with Katt miles away from Epsilon's position. It was a quite suburban neighborhood, the buildings looked rotten, the grass was yellowing. One piece of a recorded message was given out to the both of them.

"I want you and Katt to find somewhere safe. There's got to be somewhere." Epsilon commanded. The message was dated minutes ago.

From that point on Falco was only concentrated on one thing, getting somewhere safe. He and Katt left the neighborhood as fast as possible. Sirens whined in the distance, the police were coming. Their time was very limited now, the sirens grew louder as they ran. Blood pounded in Falco's ears. He could hear Katt's panting grow heavier as the sirens whine grew to a wail.

Soon his own breaths grew heavier, it was harder to breath. They had been running for what seemed an endless amount of time. Trying to find their ways through backyards and dirt alleys. Eventually the siren stopped, but Falco and Katt didn't.

Finally they had made their way to some sort of fast food restaurant, Katt and Falco sat on a bench just outside. Their weary muscles welcomed the rest. Soon they'd have to think of somewhere to stay, at least for the night. Then there was the rest of the team...Falco could only imagine that they were dead. He tried to clear the thoughts out of his head and thought of where he could get some money.

His wallet had somewhere around 20 credits, Katts had about 30. They couldn't used their bank cards, in fear of being tracked down by the government. Even random purchases could be tracked, but not quite as easy. Careful spending would have to be taken into account, and where they spent it as well.

Finally they both decided that they should check into a small motel somewhere downtown. Dangerous as it was, gangster territory was all had left. Falco knew very well that the government didn't like to dabble in their affairs. Pad publicity for them you know with wars and their paychecks on the line, it seemed easy to just cast these problems aside.

Katt went into the restaurant to order some food. Falco sat on the bench and looked at the people around him. No one noticed him, they were too concentrated on the news boards set up around the city to display the fire fight going on at the business district.

"Reports that fugitives accused of treason have escaped into the rest of Kew. This is a global announcement, live capture of one of these fugitives will earn you a 10,000 credit reward. Have you seen them?" A voice spread the message all across Kew. Pictures of the team appeared on electric bill boards across the city.

"Oh no..." Katt whispered.

"We've got to get off of this planet, we could get turned in any moment now." Falco whispered back.

"How Falco? There's no way off this planet. People will see us at public transport stations, we could get caught on the streets, there's no way." Katt sighed.

"Just hold on, I'll think of something." Falco tried to comfort Katt.

"Hey wait a second Falco, what about Fenice?" Katt suddenly perked up. Falco glared. "What?" Katt asked confused.

"I'd rather sell my soul to the devil then see him." Falco muttered.

"Come on, he knows you right?" Katt was still slightly excited.

"More than you could ever imagine."

"So then let's go see him. Besides, what else can we do?"

"I think the devil's a really good option right now." Falco replied with sarcasm.

"Knock it off, you know where he is, so lead the way." Katt waited patiently.

"Alright, but I'm not promising anything." Falco began walking to an alleyway.

* * *

Slippy sat dazed, he had been going through treatment all night. He was at some strange hospital, a research hospital by the looks of it. His consciousness wavered as the doctor injected more of the strange drugs into his arm.

"Alright Slippy, tell me where they're hiding." A voice from no where spoke down at him.

"I don't know." Slippy replied.

"Yes you do, we intercepted a call from an arwing as it landed. Play the clip."

"_I'm going to find Lucy. Falco I want you and Katt to find somewhere safe. There's got to be somewhere." _Epsilon's voice rung clearly through Slippy's ears.

"What do you have to say about that?"

"Nothing, I don't know what he's talking about." Slippy's mouth moved with a mind of it's own.

"Yes you do! We know you do! Everything is a lie, we've got Peppy. He told us that you were going to meet somewhere on Kew!" The voice was suddenly furious. The room shook, Slippy fell out of his chair with his hands around his ears.

"No I don't, I don't know. I don't know..." Slippy kept repeating over and over. Finally consciousness slipped from his grasp, he knocked out right there on the floor.

* * *

Krystal had only seen the new house once in pictures. Fox had been looking for days, and when he found it. He took some pictures and took them to the safe house. Krystal was pretty excited and scared all at the same time.

They would be in danger as soon as they left the house, but nothing had happened to them yet and they had been in the car for an hour now. Three more hours left, and they would be in the comfort of a home. For the first time in her life, she'd have a home.

She rested her eyes for a moment, and was pulled into an immediate sleep. Time seemed to shift, her mind left her body. There was miles of white. Holes dotted the landscape. It took her a moment to realize where she was. Her psychic powers had pulled her into another plain of existence. This only happened when the greater beings, the Krazoa, needed to show her something.

"Krystal...come to us Krystal." A voice echoed across the plain. She followed the voice, it was coming from one of the holes. "Come to us...come to us..." She not only could hear it, she could feel it.

Finally she found it, it was a hole filled with total darkness. "Come to us Krystal."

She slowly crawled into the hole. It felt like swimming in slime. Total darkness engulfed her for only a few moments. Light filled the world as soon as she touched ground. She was in the hallway of a house.

"Follow us Krystal, we have something of great urgency to show you." A mask suddenly appeared and began drifting down the hall.

Krystal followed the mask, pictures of her and Fox were mounted on the walls of the hallway. One was very familiar, it was a picture of her asleep in the car. A house she had never been before. She was baffled, just where was this place.

"Do not stop Krystal, keep following us." The mask turned to her and beckoned her to come.

She reluctantly left the surreal picture. At the end of the hallway was an open door. The mask went in, Krystal followed. There sitting in a desk was Fox, he looked tired and stressed. Gray hairs sprinkled the hairs on his head. His eyes could be seen visibly scanning a piece of paper over and over again.

Krystal stared, she wanted to go over and touch him, to see if he was real. She took a step forward, but the mask suddenly stopped her. Her eyes looked over at the mask, it was shaking it's head.

"Do not meddle with the living things here Krystal, lest you become part of it." The voices called

"What do mean, a part of what?" Krystal asked. The mask didn't answer. Suddenly Fox looked up, footsteps thumped through the hallway. Leon Powalski stepped through the door.

"What are you doing here Leon?" Fox glared.

"Tonight you die Fox." Leon took a step forward, Fox pulled out his blaster.

"Take another step closer and I blow your brains out."

"I didn't say I was going to kill you." Leon smiled. Fox kept his blaster.

"Then who..." Fox grew silent as Leon moved out of the way. Another figure stepped through the door. Krystal gasped. It was a blue haired Vulpine, a Cerenian. The vulpine pulled out his blaster.

"Don't do this Marcus." Fox aimed his blaster at the vulpine.

"He's not the Marcus you knew anymore Fox. What are you waiting for Kill him." Leon commanded.

Krystal looked at the two men facing each other. Tension built in the room. Finally Fox did something.

"If your going to do this, then I won't stop you." Fox said as he finally lowered his blaster. "Just think about who you are and what your fighting for."

The room began to fade, Krystal screamed to try and stop whoever this Marcus was. The darkness had engulfed her again, a blaster shot screamed out of the darkness. The thump of a body falling to the ground filled Krystal's ears. Krystal sat down and cried.

"That was the future wasn't it?" Krystal asked, her voice choked by sobs.

"Yes Krystal it was." The voices answered.

"Tell one thing before this is done, who was that Marcus person." Krystal felt a slight burning hate build inside of her. He was obviously a friend, someone that Fox trusted deeply. Someone who so easily cast all of that trust and friendship aside.

"That was your son." The voices replied. Krystal stopped breathing.

"My son?" Krystal muttered. She felt her stomach, the baby that she was trying to protect...was going to kill Fox.

"How do I stop this from happening?" Krystal asked. No answer. "Where are you? answer me!"

Time didn't seem to pass in the darkness. Noting changed, Krystal was alone. Her head ached, her stomach felt sick. All she could think about was the creature brewing inside here.

"Krystal, you know what you must do." A voice commanded.

"No, I won't kill him, not now." Krystal yelled.

"You must Krystal, if Fox dies, then freedom goes with him."

"There's got to be something else I can do."

"You trust yourself and your gift too blindly."

"I won't kill him." Krystal said frustrated.

"We shall see as time comes to pass."

* * *

A sudden flash lit up the darkness and Krystal was pulled out of the strange land. Right in front of her stood Fox holding a camera.

"Welcome to your new house Krystal." Fox was smiling.

"Di-did you just take a picture of me?" Krystal mumbled.

"Something to look back on you know." Fox replied. "And when our kid asks, well tell him the boring story about how we met."

"You're really warming up to the idea of being a father aren't you?" Krystal tried to smile, but the thought of their son killing Fox stuck in her head.

"Do you believe in omens Krystal?" Fox asked.

"Yes." Krystal replied confused.

"Well I think this whole thing about having a kid feels like a sign. A sign that I should confront my problems, I've wasted years of my life and now I have a chance to really earn them back. That's what I'm excited about Krystal." Fox told her.

Krystal nodded her head, her morals were killing her. She didn't want to tell Fox, but she had to warn him at least. Maybe she could sort this out her self, what would cause their son to do such a thing. She turned to tell Fox, but she was so lost in thought that she didn't realize that he had already walked to the house.

She ran inside and immediately noticed something out of the ordinary. First off, the house was completely furnished, something that was difficult to do in the space of two days. Second of all, the house seemed familiar. Krystal walked up a flight of stairs looking for Fox, images of that hallway flashed in her mind. As soon as she turned, there it was. It was empty, but her mind filled in the blanks. In her mind pictures dotted the hallway, everything was black.

At the end there was that same door way, she was physically here. Except this time when she stepped into the office, there he was. Fox sitting at a desk, looking at a picture. It was a vixen with smooth brown hair, her eyes were beautiful hazel.

"I can't believe I never met her." Fox sighed. "This picture has sat in this room for over thirty years, sitting in it's exact same spot."

"Where exactly did you get this house Fox?" Krystal asked.

"This was my mom and dad's house after they got married. They just barely had me, when I was two years old she was murdered. My dad left this house behind and had us settle in the city." Fox's eyes were filled with sadness. "This house was in my inheritance when my dad died, he never got rid of this house. Caretakers watched the place while I was gone. I was always on missions, so I lived on the great Fox, not here."

"Good thing your father kept the place."

"Yeah, good thing." Fox nodded. Krystal looked at the picture of his dead mom, the word murder stuck.

"Fox I have to tell you something." Krystal began.

"Yes?" Fox asked. Krystal couldn't go on. "You okay? It's fine, you can tell me."

"Well, I think..." She looked Fox in the eyes, the youthful excitement still glimmered. "I think you should, you know..." Krystal stammered looking for a lie.

"Wait I think I know what it is."

"You do?" Krystal said, very surprised.

"It's odd, we've got the perfect little family going, except for one thing." Fox slowly cracked a smile. "I beat you to it though."

"Really?" Krystal felt a little panicky.

"Krystal, I have a serious question to ask you, will you marry me?" Fox got down on his knees. Krystal was once again, very surprised.

"Y-yes. Yes of course." Krystal replied. The strangest feelings passed over her, she now knew that she had to seal her life to this family. Marcus would have to be helped, she was going to find a way to stop that night from happening.

Fox pulled Krystal into an embrace, she held him back. The haunting voices of the Krazoa filled her mind. _"We shall see when time comes to pass." _That was the last thought she had of them for the rest of the night. That night they slept in a real bed, in a real house. She had a real family, and that was what mattered between here and Fox.

* * *

"Time is running out for those Cornerians, don't you think O'donnel?" Bowman gazed at the news, his plans had been working perfectly.

"Just one question, how did you get Paus into office?"

"It was no problem, I have friends all over the place, I promised him a planet or two and he turned on his precious government. The former president "died" in an accident, and he was placed into office. Getting rid of our biggest threat was that easy. Just use diplomatic power."

"You really think they're going to stop? I've known just about all of them longer than you Bowman, you can't just expect them to give up." Wolf replied, suddenly exasperated.

"That's why our friend President Paus is going to have them exterminated. They're criminals, we've already got Toad. We just need the rest."

"Slippy's dead?" Wolf said slightly amused.

"Pretty damn close, all the drugs he's got in his system, he might OD before he can give the whereabouts of the team." Bowman let out a low chuckle.

"What have they got out of him so far?"

"Absolutely nothing. However, we do have sources that your old friend is somewhere on Katina. A little birdy told me so."

"Who?"

"You know, I can't believe I would've never guessed it, but Fox McCloud was that Iota person."

"Who told where he was?" Wolf asked intrigued.

"Clark Robin, the very Clark Robin that worked for them in the first place. We've been very fortunate these past weeks, first that Sasha person, next we've got Clark. Things look bleak for that little team."

"That's when they work their hardest." Wolf sighed to himself.

* * *

Falco and Katt silently slipped through the streets of Kew in search of Fenice. It took him no time at all to find that old meeting house he would go to when he worked for the Phoenix. The rotten old courthouse that hadn't been used since Kew was changed into the Cornerian social dump.

"Alright Katt, there's something you've got to know. La Banda di Diavoli(1) and I have a very...complicated relationship. I need to be extremely careful because I could be shot and killed any moment. I want you to run as far as you can if that happens." Falco whispered urgently.

Katt nodded her head slowly. Falco, turned around and walked to the door of the courthouse. He took a deep breath and opened the door. He felt his metal leg acting up, he was as nervous as hell. Inside there was nothing but a dark lobby. No one was inside.

"Dammit." Falco cursed to himself. A slight shuffling noise to his left alerted him, then bam! Someone struck him on the back of his head with a heavy blunt object. Falco went down like a sack of potatoes.

"Turn over let me get a better look at that face." A deep voice commanded. Falco felt his body shift around.

"Falco!" Katt cried here.

"What do we have here, just who do you think you..." Falco could see a tall man standing before him. "Do I know you?"

"Maybe, is this La Banda di Diavoli." Falco replied, his head throbbed with pain.

"Yeah, who are you exactly." The voice asked.

"Falco Lombardi, I'm looking for the Annerire la Fenice(2), I know him from a long time ago."

"Falco Lombardi! I haven't seen you in years. You look so much different, I didn't recognize ya." The man replied and helped Falco up. Falco looked blankly at the big man before him. "Oh come on, you don't recognize me either? It's Barry!"

"Wait, as in "Cousin Barry" Barry?" Falco asked.

"The one and only." Barry replied.

"Your his cousin?" Katt asked. "What does that make Fenice?"

" He's my uncle." Falco replied.

"Yes, and as I understand, you were hoping to meet with him." Barry nodded.

"Yeah, I was hoping he could help me with something." Falco nodded his head.

"I don't know, every since you left, he's been very shaky around the name Falco. He's tried to forget about you, but your name always comes up when we talk about the gang's history. I still don't know why you two don't get along anymore."

"It's hard to explain."

"You said that when you left." Barry replied.

"He killed my dad Barry. Shot his own brother right between the eyes." Falco snapped. Katt gasped.

"I thought you hated your old man."

"I did, but, he was just an old drunk. He beat me when I was little, as I got older I realized that he had no other way to vent his frustrations and pain." Falco replied. "Fenice described it as 'putting him down'"

"Well what did you expect, he was a dangerous man." Barry shrugged.

"The next day I wanted to leave, he said I couldn't. When I tried to run away with another gang, he caught me and sent me to Corneria. He imprisoned me in a house for five years. Five freaking years I was watched at school, at my own house, it was hell."

"He did it for your own good Falco." Katt suddenly thrust herself into the argument.

"Right, like he did for my dad."

"I thought you wanted to see Fenice anyways." Barry countered.

"Alright, alright, he's the only one I could think of that could help me." Falco sighed.

"You still want to see him?"

"Yes."

"Okay, well, follow me then."

Falco followed his cousin through the lobby and into the court room. Beds were in the place of seats, the only thing that remained of the old courthouse was it's large podium and the jury panel.

"Dad, you in here?" Barry asked.

"What is it?" An older voice echoed through the room.

"I have someone you might want to meet."

"Who is it?"

"An old friend." Barry shouted back.

"Old friend? Right, well I'll be over there in a minute."

A trap door near the judge's podium shifted and was lifted off of the ground. Annerire la Fenice climbed out, his black feathers glimmered in the light. Barry and Falco caught his eye. "Who's this? I don't know you."

"Yes you do Fenice, it's me...Falco." Falco called over to Fenice.

"Wh-what did you say."

"I'm Falco Lombardi, your nephew."

"Well it's been some time, hasn't it nipote?" Fenice replied coldy, his Italian(3) accent rung clearly. "And you, you must be that girl he always was with, Monroe wasn't it?"

"Katt Monroe." Katt nodded.

"Right, well what is it you need from your vecchio zio?"

"I need some help."

"Has it anything to do with those wanted posters." Fenice stared down at Falco

"Yes Fenice, it does." Falco winced.

"Condannarlo all'inferno! At the first sign of trouble and you come crawling back to me after years of running away nipote? You expect me to just want you to come back?"

"I was looking for help, you were the first one who came to mind." Falco replied.

"Really? Well that's too bad, I refuse to take you in." Fenice responded coldly.

"Wait! Dad, you can't just do that to him, he's your nephew." Barry said to his father.

"Do not get involved in this Barry, it is my business and his only." Fenice pointed at Falco.

"It's my business too dad, he's family. We're not going to turn our back on family."

"Oh don't give me the whole family speech, he's not going to stay."

"Yes he is dad, come on, what happened to the days you would tell me he was like a son to you?" Barry replied.

"Those days are over. He abandoned us Barry, and you want him to come back?" Fenice spat.

"Yes I do, like I said, I'm not going to turn my back on family." Barry snapped back. Fenice stared at his son.

"Fine, but I do not want him in my presence, he and la donna can stay with La Banda di Diavoli." Fenice sighed.

"Thank you so much." Katt sighed with relief.

"Do not expect me to defend you if they find you are here." Fenice replied.

"At least we have somewhere to stay until then." Falco said to himself.

Things were looking up for them, maybe they just might get out of this alive.

* * *

**A/N: Alright, some foot notes to this chapter.**

**(1) La Banda di Diavoli is Itailan for The Band of Devils, which I thought was a pretty cool gang name.**

**(2)** **Annerire la Fenice translates as "To Blacken the Phoenix" or Black Phoenix. Fenice alone means Phoenix. **

**(3) If English exists in the culture, why not Italian? I've already done some Greek stuff. (All Team Lazarus members' names are a letter from the Greek alphabet.) Besides, Lombardi is Italian isn't it? **

**One final note. (I may sound like a broken record to some) For veteran readers, please check out some of my older chapters. You'll be surprised to find that I've redone them. **

**I hadn't read those chapters in some time, so when I did, I was actually kind of shocked. My writing was terrible! I decided to fix it before I scare away some readers, so chapters 1-5 have been redone. For those of you who actually continued, thank you so much. I'm glad all of you stuck with the story all the way until chapter 19! Please tell what I can improve though, I pretty sure I have lots of room for improvement.**


End file.
